Just Won't Die 3
by OneShot
Summary: A Ranma/NGE/BGC crossover. Asuka discovers the use of the nanban mirror and decides use it to go back to her world to prevent Second Impact. Ranma accompanies her as her guardian. Together, the two of them spend a lot of time getting to know each other be


Jeffrey "OneShot" Wong

Just won't die 3

Ranma was on his way out of the tub as Asuka was on her way into the bathroom. Asuka, realizing that the bathroom had been occupied, and by Ranma, blushed beet red and quickly closed the door behind her.  
She had just seen Ranma totally naked, and had noticed how every magnificent inch of muscular body glistened from the water.  
She stood there, only a towel wrapped around her upper body, not knowing what to do. She was so embarrassed.  
After a short moment, the door opened and Ranma's head peaked out.  
"Ya through peeping at me?" He asked with a smirk.  
"I-I was not peeping in on you!" quickly responded, not daring to turn around.  
"All right, then what's my name?"  
"W-what?" "What's my name?" Ranma repeated.  
"Um, it's...um...Ranma," she said. Her mind was all garbled right now. Ranma chuckled as he said, "There must be something seriously keepin' your mind distracted for you to momentarily forget my name,"  
"Shut up!" she shouted, rushing out of the room and closing the door behind her.  
Standing in the hallway, in nothing but a bath towel, she heard the door to the bathing area open and then close. That meant Ranma was now in the changing room, and most totally naked. As she continued to stand there, waiting impatiently for her heart to stop racing, Shinji emerged around the corner, a towel thrown over his shoulder. Since Shinji and the others were living in Ranma's home, which was an exact replica of the old home Ranma used to live in, it was hard not to bump into each other.  
When he saw Asuka, he blushed and said, "S-sorry, I-I didn't know you were there," He quickly disappeared back around the corner. Ranma emerged from the bathroom, fully dressed. He said, "It's all yours," as he passed by her, Asuka noticing the intoxicating smell of his shampoo.  
What the hell's wrong with me? She thought to herself, Ranma's over goddamn sixty!  
She entered the bathroom.  
Misato and Ritsuko were sitting languidly on the patio when Ranma emerged from around the corner of the corridor. They were drinking some herbal tea.  
"Did one of you girls send Asuka into the bathroom while I was on my way out?" he asked, "That wasn't nice, sending a little girl in while I was naked and all,"  
The two women spit out their tea.  
"W-what?" Misato was the first one who managed to say something. Her heart nearly skipped a beat as she immediately visualized what Ranma had just said, about him naked.  
Ranma shrugged his shoulders, "Oh, nevermind. Judging from your reactions, I'd hafta say not," He shrugged the subject aside and walked forward into the backyard, totally unaware that both girls seemed to eyes him backside much more than was expected.  
Hey, Ranma was a very handsome and single man and Misato and Ritsuko were both single females. "Hey, have any of you seen Ryoga around?" he asked as he looked down in the koi pond. He wondered if he should get more fish.  
Misato said, "Um, no. The last time I saw him was two days ago,"  
"Well, I guess that must mean he got himself really lost by now," Ranma commented, "Oh well, nothing to worry about. He'll show up sooner or later. How about Akane? Have you seen her?"  
"Yeah, she just went out to buy some groceries," Ritsuko answered, "She says she'll be back in an hour or so,"  
"Cool, I'm starvin',"  
Ranma walked around to the side of that house. It was a nice day out and he enjoyed to breath of fresh air. He stopped when he saw Shinji.  
"Hey, Shinji, what's up?"  
Shinji, upon seeing Ranma, stared at him, the horrible blush enveloping his cheeks. He was caught.  
"Whatcha so embarrassed about?" Ranma asked, noticing the blush. Shinji looked like he was trying to hide something. Something was up.  
Why was Shinji out here in the first place? Ranma looked at the window Shinji was standing in front of and finally realized something.  
"Ah, I get it," Ranma said with a smirk. "This is the bathroom window. You were trying to peep on Asuka,"  
"N-n-no I-I wasn't," Shinji said quickly, stuttering like crazy. He blushed even redder.  
Ranma shrugged his shoulders, "Nothin' wrong with that," He proceeded to walk away as a shocked Shinji stared at him. As Ranma was about to round the corner of the house, Shinji called out to him, "Ranma,"  
"Hm?"  
"Y-y-you d-don't mind?" Shinji asked, very curious. He knew Ranma had hit it right on the dot when he assumed Shinji was peeping on Asuka, but he had to find out why it didn't bother him.  
Ranma shook his head, "Why the hell would I mind? You're fourteen. That's what a typical kid your age would be doing anyway. I mean, sure, it's perverted, but who cares. You're only young once,"  
"Are you serious?" Shinji asked, "I mean, you don't mind at all?"  
"Not at all," Ranma answered, "Hey, I've seen much worse than you. There was once this guy I know named Happousei, he's gotta be the most perverted person I ever so. Some of the things he does is steal woman's underwear, peeps on girls, rubs his face on their breasts, and much more. So what you're doing, that's nothing. Carry on, have fun. Do whatever ya like,"  
"Um, t-thank you...I guess," Shinji didn't know whether to be relieved that Ranma was so laid back, or scared that Ranma was so laid back.  
Ranma, curious, walked up to the window he peeped in.  
"There's nothing to see," Ranma commented, "Asuka isn't in there,"  
"What are you doing?"  
"What the hell do ya think, I'm trying to peep on Asuka," Ranma replied. He suddenly realized the person that asked the question didn't sound like Shinji. The voice was definitely female. Ranma reluctantly turned his head and his eyes rested on Misato. Standing right next to her was Ritsuko. Both girls had their arms crossed over their chests. When seeing the girls, he quickly looked behind him, hoping Shinji would help him get out of this jam by coming clean and telling them what was going on. Unfortunately, Shinji was no where to be seen.  
"And exactly why were you peeping on Asuka?" Misato asked, her anger rising. She couldn't believe the man standing before her was a peeping tom. Ranma shook his head, "Um, it's not whatcha think,"  
"From what I suspect," Ritsuko said, "You were trying to peep on Asuka while she took a bath. And from what I heard correctly, you also said that you were peeping on her, too,"  
He was about to say something but chose against it. He had been in this kind of situations plenty of times when he had been younger. He wasn't even going to attempt to weasel out of this. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, I'm not even gonna try and explain. You're female, I'm male. It's inevitable. I'm gonna end up losing. So, let's get it over with and hit me,"  
Misato and Ritsuko smirked. They both shook their head, "No. We're not going to hit you. We're going to tell Asuka,"  
Ranma scratched his chin, "Hm, wouldn't she be flattered?"  
Both girls slapped him.

Ranma knocked on Shinji's room. A half hour or so had past since the incident and it was still rather early in the morning.  
"Um, c-come in," Shinji said, a bit nervous.  
Ranma entered the guestroom that had been recently converted into Shinji's room. He had two large hand prints on his face, one on each cheek. He smirked toward Shinji, "That wasn't nice, runnin' off like that,"  
"I-I'm s-sorry," Shinji said remorsefully, looking down at the floor.  
Ranma regarded Shinji for a moment.  
"Ah, don't worry about it," Ranma said with a casual wave of the hand, "It's not like it hurts...that much. Jeez, it's weird. Ryoga's punch doesn't hurt nearly as a girl's slap," He chuckled a bit as he rubbed his cheeks with both hands.  
"Does it hurt much?" Shinji asked.  
Ranma shook his head, "Nah, it just stings. The embarrassing thing now is that Misato and Ritsuko think I was actually trying to peep on Asuka, a fourteen year old," He shrugged his shoulders, "Oh well. I'm gonna go to the kitchen and cool my face down. My cheeks feel like they're burning,"  
"I-I'm sorry t-that had happened to you,"  
Ranma chuckled, "Don't worry about it. It actually brings back memories,"  
"What do you mean?" Shinji asked curiously, "You mean you used to peep on girls?"  
Ranma's chuckling stopped immediately as he said, "No, I'm talking about getting slapped. But that's besides the point. I'm gonna get going. Talk to ya later. And next time, if you're gonna peep on someone, don't get me involved,"  
Shinji, blushing red, nodded.  
Ranma left Shinji's room and proceeded downstairs and went to the kitchen. Inside, he noticed that Rei was in there, chopping the vegetables by the counter situated just off the side to the kitchen entrance. Ritsuko was standing in front of the sink, washing some fruit. Akane was stewing some food. Akane was finally back from her grocery shopping.  
Knowing that the kitchen was busy, Ranma went to the bathroom to wash his face.  
"Gee, I'm glad Akane finally learned to cook," he commented, actually looking forward to Akane's cooking for a change.  
In the changing room, Ranma walked up to the sink and turned on the cold water. Misato had been taking nice hot shower when the water had immediately turned scolding hot on her, causing her to yelp out in shock and to jump out of the shower stall.  
Ranma heard a shout from the bathroom. Acting instinctively, Ranma quickly opened the bathroom door and stepped through. He got quite an eyeful as he immediately caught sight of a very curvaceous and naked Misato standing in front of him, soaking wet, her skin glistening with moisture.  
Misato looked away from the scolding shower head and toward Ranma.  
He brought both of his hands in front of himself defensively, expecting Misato to slap him as he said, "Hold on there, Misato. Dontcha go and jump to conclusions `n all,"  
Akane, the first to react to the scream, was the first to arrive at the scene. When she entered the bathroom, she caught sight of a naked Misato and Ranma standing in front of her, his hand reaching out to grab her breasts. Ranma turned around and saw Akane. All he managed to say was, "Oh oh,"  
"Y-you pervert!" Akane spat as she cocked her arm back and then sent it forward, slamming her fist into Ranma's jaw. Ranma was sent bodily into the bathroom wall, the impact causing it to collapse outward, Ranma ending up sliding to a halt on the ground on the outside of the house. He quickly hopped on to his feet, a hand on his jaw, "C'mon, Akane, it wasn't what you were thinking. I heard Misato scream and thought she was in trouble. That's why I rushed into the bathroom like I did,"  
Akane looked to her left and noticed that the water was on for the sink. She immediately realized Ranma's cunning plan. "Ranma!" Akane said, glowing with anger, "I know what you trying to do! You turned on the water to make Misato scream so you would have a reason to rush into the bathroom and see her naked! You're such a pervert!"  
"Yes, and he was peeping on Asuka earlier," Ritsuko remembered to add. She wouldn't have said otherwise because Asuka wasn't there at the moment. She had gone out to explore the city. Ritsuko handed Misato a towel to wrap around herself. Akane's eyes widened, "H-he what? S-she's only fourteen!"  
"Hold up! Quit jumpin' to conclusions!" Ranma said, "First of all, she saw me naked first,"  
"And you think that's all right that you see her naked?" Akane shouted, "She's only fourteen! And for you information, it doesn't matter if a girl sees a guy naked!" "Really?" Ritsuko asked, more to herself than anyone in particular. After hearing that, she smiled.  
Akane started to roll the sleeves of her shirt up. She was furious at Ranma for what he had done. Poor Asuka. She said, "Ranma, how dare you peep on a young and innocent girl like that!"  
Ranma, now starting to get annoyed, retorted, "Hold up, Akane. This is all a misunderstanding. I'm not the bad guy here. I did nothing wrong here,"  
"What do you mean you did nothing wrong?" Akane spat, "You saw Asuka and Misato naked!"  
"Hold up, Akane," Ranma said, "You weren't here when I saw Asuka naked,"  
"From what you just said...so you did see her naked," Akane responded. "Ugh, I've been through all of this when I was young! I don't need to go through it again!" Ranma, not wanting to deal with all of this, turned around and walked away. Akane was about to say something but Ranma had already jumped up over the outer wall that surrounded the house.  
"Is he always like this?" Ritsuko had to ask.  
Akane shook her head, "If you mean in terms of him acting the way he does, yes. He's changed a bit over the years though. He's doesn't stick his foot in his mouth as often as he used to, but that's about it. He's still an arrogant and obnoxious jerk," She shrugged her shoulders and went back into the house via the opening. Ritsuko stared at the wall Ranma had easily jumped over and then followed after Akane.

Ranma casually walked the street, deciding to head uptown and drop in on Sylia and the others. As he walked down the street, he looked around and was bit surprised at how busy the streets were. He was looking across the street at a newly opened restaurant that he hadn't seen before when something bumped into him.  
"Hey, watch where you're going, buddy!" Asuka shouted. She looked up and recognized Ranma. Her eyes widened as the image of what she had seen a short while ago quickly entered her mind. She quickly banished them and resorted to her usual tactics toward Ranma. "In your case, watch where you're going, oyaji," she smirked.  
Ranma smiled and then laughed, which seemed to make Asuka more angry. "What're you doing here so far away from the house? You might get lost,"  
Asuka bit her lip. Did Ranma know that she was lost? She had been walking around for about twenty minutes looking for something familiar. "I ain't lost. I know where I am,"  
"Whatcha doin' out here, so far uptown? Just touring around?" he asked nicely.  
"It's really none of your business," she spat back.  
Ranma shrugged his shoulders. He knew Asuka was lost. He noticed she was panning back and forth looking at all the unfamiliar buildings. "All right. I'll leave you alone to your little tour. Akane came back a short while ago. Breakfast'll be ready in probably about a half hour. I'm pretty sure ya don't wanna miss that," he told her.  
"Um, w-where were you going?" Asuka quickly asked. Ranma smiled, wondering if he should respond with what she had said with a simple 'it's none of your business' but he chose against it. He said, "There's some people I wanna say hi to. They probably missed me since I was gone so long and all,"  
"Ain't that a rather arrogant assumption on your part," Asuka couldn't help but comment, "Me, I wouldn't miss you, not in the least,"  
Ranma ignored Asuka's comment. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of bills. He handed them to Asuka.  
"Here's some money," Ranma said, "Just in case. Since you're so stubborn and all and too proud to ask for the way home, I'm givin' ya some money so you'll have something to eat later in case you get hungry,"  
"I don't want your money," Asuka said, shoving it up into his chest.  
Ranma didn't take it as he said, "There's enough money in there for breakfast and a taxi back home. I don't like the thought of having to come out here and lookin' for you because you were too stubborn to ask for help," "Who're you calling stubborn? I know exactly where I am!"  
He ignored her as he told Asuka the address and added, "Also, if you look at the sky above, it's gonna rain sooner or later. I suggest you do whatever you were doin' and then get back home,"  
He raised his head and looked over Asuka's shoulder, "Hey, Asuka, you have some admirers. They're behind you, but they're definitely checkin' ya out. They both look to be around your age. I guess I wouldn't blame `em. I mean, you can be cute sometimes,"  
"So? I don't care. I betcha they're all a buncha bakaheads," she quickly said, staring straight ahead and at Ranma's chest. She felt this slight heat forming around her cheeks. What could it be from? Could it be because he said she was cute sometimes?  
"All right. Whatever ya say. I'll see you back home," he said as he walked passed her and headed further uptown.  
Asuka stood there for several moments, wondering if she should turn around. If she did, those boys would establish eye contact with her and walk over to her and try and pick her up. She looked down at the handful of money Ranma had just handed her. She had to admit that was sweet of him, despite the fact that she hated him and had declined to take it. Knowing that she was being watched from behind, curiosity getting the better of her, Asuka turned around. What she saw was nothing but passerbys. If only took her a moment before she realized she had been duped, that Ranma had been joking around. Here she had been, standing there, wondering whether to walk away or turn around to face those boys he had told her about, when there had been nobody checking her out. She couldn't believe she had fallen for one of Ranma's jokes.  
"That asshole!"  
Nene sat in front of her console. Another boring morning at work. Nothing fun ever happened anymore ever since Genom went under a while back. There were no longer any calls on some advanced military boomer having gone berserk in the middle of MegaTokyo. All she ever did was sit in front of her console and monitor trivial occurrences, like car accidents and robberies.  
She sighed, "Another dull morning,"  
Her co-worker, Janiko, came up to her, a smirk on her lips, "Hey, Nene, there's someone here to see you. He's waiting out front for you,"  
"Who?"  
"I dunno, but all I have to say is way to go. This guy's gorgeous," came the reply, emphasized with a smirk, "Man, having someone like that could definitely make other girls jealous,"  
Nene looked at her co-worker, her eyes creasing. Was this some kind of joke? No one came to visit her a work, let alone a man, "Why's he here for me?"  
Janiko shrugged her slender shoulders, "I dunno. Why dontcha go ask him yourself. I'll take over for you while you're gone. Nothing ever really happens in the morning anyway. Jus' don't take too long, if you know what I mean," she said with a wink.  
Nene blushed a bit as she got up off her seat and proceeded toward the front entrance. When she reached there, she saw someone that looked familiar, but his back was turned toward her. "R-Ranma?"  
Ranma turned around and smiled warmly, "Hello,"  
"Y-you're b-back?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yep. I got back to Japan the other day,"  
Nene, in a fit of joy, ran forward and embraced Ranma. She hadn't seen him in the longest time, not ever since he disappeared, Ryoga disappearing shortly afterwards.  
Steeling herself, Nene cupped her hands on Ranma's cheeks and stood on the tips of her toes as she brought her lips up to Ryoga's mouth and gently kissed him. Ranma's eyes widened a bit. When Nene released her embrace, she looked up at him.  
"Where have you been all this time?" she asked. Ranma smirked, "I'm doing fine, Nene. Thanks for asking,"  
"I'm sorry," Nene blushed a bit. She didn't know what came over her.  
"Anyway, I got back the other day," he continued, "You won't believe it if I told you. None of you will,"  
"Try me," she said. After having seen what Ranma, a human, was capable of doing, her mind was very open nowadays.  
Ranma shrugged his shoulders, "All right. I ended up on an alternate world of Earth where I fought against these Angels that God sent down to test humanity to see if humans were worthy of existing or perishing. These Angels tried cause this thing called the Third Impact which is pretty much the apocalypse, or doomsday, which means the total destruction of all of humanity," He smiled to let all that sink in, "Do ya still believe me?"  
"Um, er...well, I'm glad you're back," was the best Nene could come up with.  
Ranma laughed aloud, "Well, we can chat about that some other time. Anyway, I came here to say hi,"  
"W-what about the others? Did you see them yet?" Nene asked.  
"Nope, you're the first one I'm seeing,"  
Nene blushed. That was very flattering of him, to see her first before anyone else.  
"I hafta be back in a short while. Besides, AD Police Headquarters is the closest to my house," he added, which seemed to make Nene's face somber slightly.  
"Oh,"  
"Hey, I'm only one guy," he said, "I can't be at several places at once,"  
"Well, it's nice to know that you came to me first before anyone else," she said with a smile.  
"But I woulda gone to any of the other girls' place first had they been closer," he said. When he noticed Nene glaring at him, he quickly wished he didn't say that. Sometimes, he should realize saying nothing is better than saying anything at all, especially in his case.  
"Um, how's Ryoga?"  
"Lost," Ranma smirked, "Like always. He came back with me, but he got lost somewhere along the trek from the front gate of the house to the front door. Anyway, I just wanted to letcha know that I'm back and that I'm fine and that I'm looking forward to having you and the other's stopping by when you're free,"  
"How nice of you," Nene said with a warm smile, "I'm free right after work. I don't know about Sylia and the others. I do know, however, that we're all free from six on. We could stop by then,"  
"Cool," Ranma said with an equally warm smile, "I'm glad to hear that. There's a few people I'd like ya to introduce you to. They came back with me,"  
"T-they did?"  
"Well, yeah, but we can talk about it later," he continued, "We could catch up on things then. Anyway, I guess I better get goin' now. It's gonna rain any minute and I hafta order some sheetrock for a hole in a wall. I'll see you and the others around six, ne?"  
Nene nodded, "All right. I'll see you,"  
When Ranma walked off, Nene sighed. It was nice seeing Ranma again. And god, was he as gorgeous as ever. She wondered how nice she and Ranma would look together as a couple.  
"C'mon, tellme," Janiko said, stepping out the front door, "Who is that man? Does he have a brother?"  
"Hey, why aren't you at your station, I'll get in trouble," Nene turned toward her, "I thought you were going to look out for me,"  
"Relax. It's morning. Anyway, who was that man?"  
Nene smiled, more to herself that to her co-worker.  
"That's for me to know and you to find out,"  
"Hmph!"  
Asuka stood under the doorway of a restaurant as she looked up at rain that had started a short while ago. She had been caught only momentarily out in the open when it started to down pour all of a sudden so her clothes were wet. She hated this. Here she was, in an unfamiliar city, wet, and having no idea where to go. She had forgotten the address Ranma had given her.  
Ranma was whistling as he walked down the street in the pouring rain. It was nice to feel the rain again. Sure, he was now soaking wet, but that didn't bother him. Perhaps it was the fact that he didn't have a curse to worry about anymore.  
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Asuka. He barely saw her as she ducked into the restaurant. He wondered if he should offer to walk her home with him since it was obvious that she had either forgotten the address he had given her or was lost.  
Since he was kind by heart, Ranma walked toward the restaurant and entered it. Inside, he spotted Asuka sitting at a table looking at a menu.  
Ranma walked up to her table, "Mind if I sit with you?"  
Asuka placed the menu down and glared at Ranma, "Fine, go ahead. So, what do you want?" From out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed several females glancing in their direction, their gazes on Ranma. She felt a bit angry but didn't know why.  
He sat down at Asuka's table, still smiling as he said, "It's raining,"  
"How observant of you. Perhaps you're not as stupid as you look," she retorted.  
Ranma sighed. He reached over the table and took Asuka's hand, "C'mon, let's get going. You're gonna get wet cause I don't have an umbrella, but I think that's a whole lot better than being wet, lost, and having no idea where to go,"  
Asuka jerked her hand away. "Don't touch me," She wondered why Ranma's hands were so warm despite the fact that he had been out in the rain and was soaking wet.  
Ranma was trying to restrain himself as she said, "Asuka, I'm here to take you home,"  
"I don't need your help!" she said. She wasn't at all bothered by the stares toward their direction. She didn't mind the attention. She did mind Ranma acting like he was supposed to be her savior. Who the hell does he think he is?  
Ranma's hands clenched bit and then loosen. In a mellow voice, he said, "Okay, have it your way. Be stubborn. I'm not gonna come out lookin' for you, even if Misato and Ritsuko insist. Have fun, cause you're gonna have a miserable time. This rain ain't gonna let up for several more hours,"  
With that said, Ranma left the restaurant.  
The muscles around Asuka's mouth tightened as she watched him leave. She hated him. She hated him because he was right. But deep down inside, she knew she was being stubborn, more stubborn than she usually was. He was trying to help, and on several times, yet she refused.  
Knowing that she had to swallow her pride, that she did indeed need his help, Asuka got up out of her seat and ran after him.  
Upon exiting the restaurant, she saw Ranma waiting patiently right next to the door. He looked at her for a moment, looked like he was about to say something teasingly but chose not to.  
"C'mon, let's get you back home," was all he said.

"We're home," Ranma called out as he and Asuka entered the house. The two of them were taking off their soaking shoes as everyone came down the hallway to greet them.  
"Welcome back," Shinji said in a low voice. His eyes seemed to linger a bit one Asuka's wet shirt longer than they were supposed to, "Where did you two go?"  
"It's none of your business, Baka Shinji," Asuka shot out. She was in a very lousy mood. She couldn't believe she had received help from the person she hated most yet she couldn't do anything about it.  
"I went and visited some friends of mine. They'll be stopping by at around six," Ranma said. He jerked a thumb toward Asuka, angry that she snapped at Shinji for no reason and said, "She, on the other hand, got lost. I had to bring her home,"  
Asuka gritted her teeth but quickly said, "I did not!"  
Ranma ignored her as he looked at Akane, whom seemed to still be angry at him from what had happened earlier and said, "Akane, what didja cook? I've been lookin' forward to one of your meals,"  
That seemed to change Akane's mood completely. Her anger-filled eyes turned toward that of excitement. She even smiled at him warmly, "Actually, I wasn't the only one that cooked in the kitchen. We all decided to make a traditional western breakfast, eggs, sausages, the works,"  
Ranma looked smiled, "That's great. I've always liked that kinda food," He turned toward Asuka and smiled, "If I remember correctly, Asuka thought my version of it was slop."  
"When did I say that?" she asked.  
"Remember that day when you came home from school? And you saw me cooking breakfast food during the afternoon? Well, what we're gonna be eating will be the same 'slop' that you saw," He said, chuckling, "Talk about your coincidence. It's either that or just bad karma on your part,"  
Asuka seemed to be quiet for a change. She didn't really care what she was eating. She was starving. She was just glad that it didn't show on her face.  
Her stomach rumbled loudly.  
Ranma laughed, "And if I remember correctly, your stomach also rumbled too. Deja vu, ne?"  
"Shut up, Ranma!" Akane shouted, her anger rising again. She knew that Ranma was teasing Asuka in some way, even though she didn't really have an idea.  
Ranma looked at Asuka and her wet clothes, "Asuka, you better go and change outta though clothes. You're gonna catching a cold if you don't." He then walked down the hallway and rounded the corner.  
"What was that about?" Misato asked.  
"Nothing. He's just and asshole," Asuka commented. When she noticed Akane look at her oddly, she said, "Um, sorry. I just couldn't help it. It's just that sometimes-"  
Akane smiled a bit, "You know what, Asuka? I think that's best word to describe Ranma,"  
Asuka laughed slightly. Somehow, even though she had known Akane for a short while, she was getting to like her.  
Ranma peeked his head around the corner.  
"Hey, I heard that."

Ranma entered the dining room just as everybody was about to start eating breakfast. Everyone was sitting around the table, even Rei. The atmosphere of the room was very cozy. The patio door was open, allowing everyone a clear view of the rain as it now gently fell.  
"It's about time," Akane muttered.  
Ranma sat down and looked at the vast amount of food laid out in front of him, "Damn, this stuff looks good,"  
Akane blushed. Although Misato, Rei, and Ritsuko had help, she had done most of the cooking. Everyone started eating, almost immediately indulging in rich conversation.  
"You two live alone?" Misato had finally asked. She had been meaning to ask this ever since she arrived just a day ago. She wanted to know exactly who Akane was. She knew Akane wasn't Ranma's sister because she had a different familyname.  
Ranma nodded, his manners lacking as he spoke with his mouth full, "Yeah. Ryoga also lives here, but he's usually lost or wandering the continent or something along those line,"  
"This is a very nice house," Ritsuko commented, looking about. The house had a very homey feel to it. She would love to live in a house like this, provided if she could ever afford it. She was a long ways off.  
Akane smiled as she said, "This house is a replica of the house we used to live in when we were young. That was well over forty years ago,"  
"Young? Forty years ago?" Shinji looked questioningly at Akane. He could have sworn Akane looked like she was around twenty if not younger.  
Ranma sighed, "All right. I guess I should clear this up now that everyone's here. I'll explain how I eventually ended up on your world. To start off, Akane, she's dead,"  
"I am not!" she quickly said.  
"All right, I guess I should reword it," Ranma chuckled a bit, "When I was young, in my teens, everyone I know, even Akane here, was killed when a buncha robots called `boomers' went on a rampage through the city of Nerima, thus, that's why it was called the `Nerima Massacre'. Nerima was the city we lived in at the time. Only two...actually three people survived. Me. Ryoga. And a person named Lisa," "The `Nerima Massacre'. I remember you mentioning about that," Misato said.  
Ranma nodded, "Well, yeah, I made references to that, but not much. Anyway, this all took place, what, forty or so years ago. When everyone was killed, Ryoga and I went our separate ways. I went to the mountains to train and forget about all that had happened. Well, after thirty years passed, I came back to Japan and actively sought out to destroy Genom, the company that created those so called `boomers'. I happened to have bumped into Ryoga after all these years and we eventually teamed together...along with four girls that I tried to kill,"  
"Kill?" Misato asked.  
"They'll be here this evening. You can have them explain it," Ranma said, "Well, we all teamed up and went against Genom. Genom threw everything they had at us but we pretty much brushed it all off. That was when they got desperate and tried to do something really devious to stop us,"  
Akane took that moment to intervene with the story, "Well, Genom had me resurrected because they found out I was somehow connected to Ryoga and Ranma. They tried to, I guess the word would be to program me to kill them. Well, Ranma managed to stop that and I was brought back as you see me know,"  
"Brought back, does that mean that in this world, people have the ability to bring people back to life?" Ritsuko asked, truly interested. This sounded much much more interesting in technological terms than working with Evangelions.  
Akane nodded a bit and said, "Well, kinda. In case you're wondering...I'm a machine...but a machine with a soul,"  
"You mean like a clone," Rei said. She seemed a bit preoccupied as she said that.  
"I'm the exact replica...no, I'm the exact same person that I was on the day that I was killed. For me, it feels like I have never died," Akane answered, "Anyway, I was brought back to life. We, meaning Ranma and the others and I, all teamed up against Genom and eventually, Ranma stole a little microchip that soon led to Genom's downfall,"  
"So Genom no longer exists?" Ritsuko asked. She felt a bit sad. She wouldn't mind working for a company like that. She could definitely put her computer genius to good use while employed there.  
"Nope, that company went under," Ranma said. "This happened about ten years ago. Over the course of the next ten years, the three of us went to China to find the cure for my curse,"  
"I remember you mentioning about a curse," Misato said, "But what is it?"  
Ranma shook his head, "It's best left unsaid. It's behind me now. Anyway, while in China, I found a box. That box, when I opened it, brought me to your world. And of course, you know what happens from there on," Ranma took a moment for it to sink in before he grinned and said, "That's one heck of a story, ne?"  
Everyone save Akane nodded.  
There was a short moment of silence before it was broken by Shinji, "Um, this house, how did you get it?"  
"That's easy, I'm rich," Ranma said bluntly. Upon saying that, Misato and Ritsuko looked at each other and then at Ranma.  
"Y-you're rich?" Asuka asked, shock in her voice.  
He smiled, "Yep. I'm rich. Shortly after I came back to Japan, I made a myself finally known in the martial arts community by demonstrating how well I can manipulate ki. And soon after that, I opened up my own dojo, the dojo you see to your right on your way to the front door, while simultaneously opening up a massive chain of martial arts equipment stores throughout the country. I reckon Ryoga checks up on them whenever he passes through town since he travels a lot. Anyway, with that dojo built, and plenty of money, I had this house built around it. Pretty cool, huh?"  
"So you must be quite the catch," Misato said carefully, smirking a bit. She then turned toward Akane, "You must be a lucky woman to have Ranma, ne?"  
Akane blushed.  
Misato didn't know what to say. She couldn't read it in Akane's face. She had no idea what kind of relationship Akane had with Ranma. She figured it was best to say it outright, "Are you two lovers?"  
Ranma nearly choked on his food. He took a drink, a deep breath and said, "Well, we were finacees back then. But then again, we were both engaged against our will. It didn't help that I was engaged to several other girls too at the time,"  
"That must be quite the hectic life," Shinji commented, almost enviously. He wondered if he would ever get a fiancee, let alone a few.  
"Let's just say this," Ranma began after a short pause, "When I was young, I was engaged to several girls without my consent. Because of my curse, several guys, yes, you heard me, guys, were in love with me and wanted to also marry me. Many many other guys tried to kill me because they thought I stole their fiancees. I lived with a father who is so pathetic that he once sold me for rice and pickles and fish when I had been a baby. Ya want me to continue? Okay. I lived with a old letch that stole women's panties, and somehow, I would always get blamed for it. I have Ryoga on my back, constantly trying to kill me every step of the way, like he does now. My mother would kill me if she ever found out my curse. One of Akane's sister would take pictures of me and sell them to people in school. I had a three hundred year old ghoul that wants me to marry her great-granddaughter and does every evil trick in the book to do so. And that just a few of my problems. All of this takes place several month after I finally move into Akane's house,"  
Everyone was staring at Ranma.  
"T-t-that's absolutely crazy!" Ritsuko commented. "H-how d-do you deal with something like that? I mean, your stress level must be through the roof,"  
Ranma shrugged his shoulders, "Well, not really. I took everything in strides. Yes, sometimes it bothered me greatly, but I was able to cope with most of it,"  
"It's actually his fault," Akane had to add, "Although not all of it is, but a good amount of those problems are is his fault,"  
Ranma glared at Akane but said nothing since he knew she was right.  
"Man, I'm getting a headache," Misato said, "Let's talk about something else,"  
And so they did.  
"I have a comment," Akane said.  
"What is it?" Ranma asked.  
"Ranma, for some reason, Rei sounds a lot like you when you were in your cursed form,"

Ranma walked into the bathroom. He was carrying some tools.  
"Argh!" Shinji said, quickly ducking back into the bathtub.  
"Yeah, I came here to peep on you, Shinji," Ranma commented sarcastically, "I'm only here because I don't wanna any of the girls thinkin' I'm here to peep on 'em. I have a wall to fix,"  
He peeked his head out the hole in the wall and saw Rei leaning against the wall, a blush on her cheeks.  
He smiled at Rei but said nothing. It was nice that Rei was acting a bit more like a normal girl.  
Ranma ducked his head back into the bathroom and said, "Yo, Shinji, if you're not too busy, perhaps you could help me out here,"  
"Um, sure," he said meekly. He then quickly got out of the bathtub and went to the changing room to get dressed.  
When Shinji left the room, Ranma peeked his head back out again. Outside, he saw Rei leaning against the wall. She wasn't wet from the rain since she was underneath the overhanging roof.  
"Hey, Rei, what's up?" he said with a big smile.  
"Nothing," she said, not looking directly at him.  
"Well, that settles it, now that you peeped on Shinji, there's only one thing we could do," he said.  
Rei blushed, "W-what I-is that?"  
Ranma smiled. Although he was a bit used to how Rei acted back then, being a bit stoic and all, he also liked this Rei. She acted a bit more like the average girl. He even liked the fact that she got flustered from time to time.  
He said, "Well, since you peeped on Shinji, that means he gets to peep in on you," He chuckled, wondering how she would react.  
"Wouldn't that mean Misato gets to peep in on you?" came the reply.  
Ranma was silent. What could he say? But then again, who says that she hadn't already. Or Ritsuko for that matter. Neither of them had much to do to pass the time.  
"All right, you got me there," he replied, ducking his head back into the hole.  
Rei giggled a bit and quickly walked off, not wanting to stay behind and risk Shinji seeing her standing there.  
Shinji entered the bathroom, dressed in casual attire.  
"Um, what would you like me to do?" Shinji asked nervously, looking down at the tool Ranma was laying about.  
"The sheetrock arrived a short while ago," Ranma said, "It's out in the hallway. Can ya help me bring one in?"  
Ranma and Shinji both got up and went to the hallway where they both picked up the sheetrock. Although it was obvious that Ranma could easily pick it up, but Shinji seemed to take some enjoyment out of being helpful. It seemed to give him a purpose. He needed something to do now that he wasn't an EVA pilot. He was too young to work, and school, as soon as he started attending, would only take up some of his time.  
Once the sheetrock was in the room, Ranma said, "There's some pieces of wood, can ya fetch 'em, I'm gonna measure how large I've gotta cut the sheetrock to close the hole up,"  
"All right," Shinji said as he obediently did as he was told. He walked out into the hallway where he saw a dozen or so two by fours. As he was picking them all up when Asuka spotted him. She was about to use the bathroom, too.  
"What're you doing?" she asked, nicely for a change.  
"I'm helping Ranma fix the hole in the bathroom," he answered, "It was caused by Ranma when he walked in on Misato while she was on her way out of the shower," He realized he wished he hadn't said that because a naked image of Misato entered his mind. God, he was glad he was holding the two by four low enough that it would hide his slowly growing arousal.  
Asuka noticed the blush emerge on Shinji's face. She knew exactly what he was thinking about. When she looked down, she had her confirmation.  
"You pervert!" she said.  
Ranma emerged from the bathroom. He had heard the conversation.  
He noticed the flustered look on Shinji's face. He turned toward Asuka and smirked, "What makes you call him a pervert?"  
"What the hell do you think?" she answered. She didn't care about how embarrassed Shinji was.  
Ranma chuckled, "Hey, what do ya expect, it's still morning,"  
"What the hell does that mean?" Asuka asked.  
Ranma laughed. Pretty soon, Shinji started to, albeit slightly, the awkwardness now gone.  
"C'mon, Shinji, let's get back to work,"

Sylia and Linna and Priss arrived right on time, six o' clock.  
Ranma smiled, "Sylia, Linna, glad you could make it," He gave the girls an embrace, almost squeezing the air out of their lungs.  
Sylia smiled, taking in a deep breath, "We got Nene's message. She's still at work and will be here shortly. She'll be here in about ten minutes," She looked at Ranma and smiled, "It's nice seeing you again,"  
"Same here," Linna said, fixing her rumpled blouse.  
"You all look good," Ranma commented, "It's nice to be back. Let's just say that Ryoga and I had one heck of an adventure,"  
Ranma gestured for the three girls to follow him into the patio.  
"He's still got it," Linna commented, eyeing Ranma's rear end as he lead the group.  
Nene blushed while Sylia chuckled.  
The three of them met up with two females roughly their age and three children.  
"Sylia, Nene, Linna, I'd like you to meet Asuka, Rei, Shinji, Ritsuko, and Misato," Ranma said. He then did the same introductions for the three newcomers.  
"It's nice to meet you all," Linna said with a warm smile. Shinji blushed. These three girls were very beautiful. He also realized that aside from Ranma, whom had just left the room to go to the kitchen, he was the only male in the room.  
Asuka eyed the three girls critically while Rei bowed politely.  
Sylia smiled as she caught Asuka's gaze. She knew the young girl was assessing her, sizing her up. Sylia had to respect the girl because she definitely showed intelligence behind those blue eyes of hers. The young girl didn't seem to be all that impressed by the impeccable attire that Sylia wore.  
Ranma entered the room, Akane following closely behind.  
"Well, since Nene won't be here for a short while, let's catch up on the times," Ranma said, "I pushed the reservations back a half an hour," He looked over and noticed how nervous Shinji looked, and decided to help ease his tension, "Guess what? Shinji here helped me plug up a hole in the wall,"  
Sylia, the most perceptive of the bunch, knew what Ranma was trying to do. She found it sweet that Ranma would do something like that to help Shinji feel more comfortable. She looked at Shinji, "Was it hard work?"  
"Um, not at all," he said nervously.  
Sylia smiled. He was just shy. That was it.  
"Say, if you're not busy, maybe you and Ranma could stop by my penthouse one day," she said, "Ranma, when he was there, had caused a massive amount of damage,"  
"Hey, it wasn't my fault. Those boomers followed me back there back then. Waitaminute...actually it was my fault because I was the reason why they followed me," Ranma said.  
Shinji chuckled a bit. Sylia seemed to have turned all of the attention onto Ranma, thus, Shinji felt a little more at ease.  
"You should hear about some of the things Ranma's done," Linna commented, joining in on the fun of teasing Ranma, "Once, he and Ryoga got in a fight, and their battle took out a whole legion of boomers,"  
Shinji smirked. That was kind of funny.  
"How did you and Ranma meet?" Asuka asked.  
Sylia was the first to answer that.  
"He tried to kill us,"  
The evening progressed perfectly. Shortly after Nene had arrive, apologizing profusely for her tardiness, the entire group went to a fancy French restaurant located a short distance from the house. On their way there, they all bumped into Ryoga, and Ryoga ended up joining them.  
While at the restaurant, everyone indulged in meaningful conversation, talking about everything, revealing everything. After seeing what Ranma was capable of, everyone had a very open mind and was no longer skeptical about what was said.  
"So, what did you do back, um, on your own world?" Nene asked to no one in general.  
Ritsuko was the one who answered.  
"Well, it was kind of strange," she said, "Back on our world, we experienced a thing called the `Second Impact', which was the melting of the polar ice caps. The water level rose ninety meters and billions of people died because of that. There were these messengers from heaven called Angels that attacked Earth and tried to wipe out all of humanity and we fought them with these living machines called Evangelions. These Angels were approximately the height of the average building. In the end, our entire city was destroyed and the defensive headquarters that we worked for,"  
The four girls looked at Ritsuko with wide eyes.  
"Yeah, it's pretty strange," Misato began, laughing a bit to ease the tension, and said, "But what's even more strange was when Ranma showed up and starts fighting these things. I mean, there he was, about a hundred times smaller than the Angel, and he was fighting it,"  
Everyone seemed to turn their attention toward Ranma.  
He was eating.  
"What? Do I have something on my face?"  
Everyone nearly burst out in laughter.  
After the laughter died down, it was Sylia, Nene, Linna, and Priss' turn to tell their side of the story. For some reason, they all ended up talking about Ranma.  
"Well, what happened was we thought Ranma was a boomer," Linna said, "That's what Sylia said when Asuka asked about how we met and she said that Ranma tried to kill us. What happened was that Ranma thought we were boomers while we thought he was a boomer. It was all a case of mistaken identity,"  
"How could he mistaken you for boomers? I mean, didn't you say that boomers are machines?" Asuka asked, "He must be pretty stupid to mistaken you for machines,"  
"That's because we were wearing these things called hardsuits," she said. When she got a weird look from her three friends, she continued on, "Back then, we used to wear these things called hardsuits. We were called the Knight Sabers. I wouldn't be telling you this kind of thing but since we don't wear them anymore, it doesn't really matter if you know or not. Well, anyway, we all mistaken each other for boomers and tried to kill each other,"  
"Um, h-how did it turn out?" Shinji asked.  
Ranma smiled as he looked up from his food and said, "I killed them What you see before you are ghosts," When Shinji's eyes widened, Ranma quickly said, "I'm just kiddin'. I'm just kiddin',"  
Nene said, "Let's just say that all four of us, we couldn't stop him,"  
"Well, we never tried," Misato said teasingly, "But if we went against Ranma, we probably woulda gave him a push for his money,"  
Ranma looked up, his still mouth full, "Maybe, maybe not,"  
"I woulda stopped you," Asuka said confidently.

After the dinner, everyone had gone out and enjoyed a nice night out at a nearby amusement park. While the adults sat on a bench and chatted, enjoying on another's company, the three children had gone on to ride the rides. Ranma had given them plenty of money. Shinji and Rei didn't seem to have any problems enjoying themselves. Asuka found the rides childish but eventually caved in and succumbed to the child side of herself.  
Ranma, realizing that he was the only male in the group of adults, soon realized that the females seemed to have a tendency of ganging up on him and teasing him. He quickly bailed out by going on the ride with the children instead. Ryoga had somehow gotten lost sometime during the trek from the restaurant to the amusement park.  
When it neared midnight, the children were getting tired and Ranma decided to call it a night.  
They all called it the night and split up.  
Sylia, Nene, Linna, and Priss shared a cab back to their respective residences. They had enjoyed a great evening of chatting and eating and catching up on the times.  
Ranma and the others were now alone as the children sat on a nearby bench.  
"Ya wanna call a cab?" Ranma asked. "I mean, we're not all that close to home."  
Akane shrugged her shoulders, "It's a nice night out. I wouldn't mind Walking,"  
Misato wanted to be lazy. She would rather get home differently, "I'd rather call a cab,"  
Ranma, figuring it was best to call a cab, walked up to a phonebooth. "Great, the phonebook's missin'. And I don't know what the number of the cab company is," He sighed, "Oh well, looks like we'll be walking. Sylia or the others aren't here, that way, they could give us the number. Oh well,"  
He looked over toward the bench to tell the children that they would be walking but noticed they all seemed to have fallen asleep.  
"That sucks, looks like we've gotta carry `em,"  
Ranma was carrying Shinji while Misato carried Asuka and Ritsuko carried Rei. "Hm, perhaps I shouldn't've taken that turn," Ranma muttered. He had no idea where he was. But he did notice one thing, "Looks like we're in the bad part of town,"  
Ranma continued to walk down the street.  
The girls cautiously followed behind. There were many people and gangs standing in grounds all over the sidewalk. They were all eyeing the hapless group.  
Misato and Ritsuko were both very nervous.  
"Um, I-I don't like this neighborhood," Misato commented, not daring to make eye contact with some of the people leering toward her and the others.  
Ranma turned toward them and said in a reassuring voice, "Don't worry, you are perfectly fine. No one's gonna hurt you."  
They believed him.  
He cast his gaze over the groups of people, not at all worried about making eye contact with them. Of course, with all the people he did make eye contact with, they all gave him threatening looks. That didn't seem to bother Ranma one bit.  
"What are you looking at, asshole?" a person shouted out toward him. He was standing by the corner with five of his comrades when their gaze locked.  
"Man, shut up," Ranma let out an annoyed breath, "Can't you see we have sleeping children with us? What the heck are you trying to prove?"  
The man was taken aback by Ranma's words. When he realized he had just been made a fool, the man sneered.  
"Don't even think about it," Ranma cautioned the man, "You do not wanna fight me. The same goes for your friends,"  
Once again, the man was taken aback. Perhaps it was the way Ranma said it or perhaps his audacity to actually threaten the man, but the words seemed to have gotten through.  
"Hmph, let's get outta here," the man said, turning around and walking off. His comrades seemed a bit confused before they reluctantly followed suit. "I-I can't believe what just happened," Misato commented in awe, "Y-you just scared those guys away,"  
Ranma shrugged again, "Heh, most of the time, I end up in fights. Actually, I'm a bit surprised that I didn't hafta beat them up. Perhaps things are looking on the up and up,"  
Ritsuko looked at Misato, "For some odd reason, I think those guys are lucky they didn't fight Ranma, not the other way around,"  
Misato nodded.  
The next morning, Asuka was brushing her hair as she walked down the hallway while carrying a mirror.  
Ranma was on his way out of the bathroom when he spotted Asuka.  
"Hey, Asuka," he greeted her. When he saw the mirror she was holding, he quickly grabbed it away from her, "Be careful with that,"  
"Why? What's wrong?" she asked, almost startled.  
"That's the nanban mirror," Ranma said, "That's the mirror I used to get us back to this world. If used incorrectly, it'll end up taking you back to your own world," "The nanban mirror?"  
Ranma looked down at the mirror, "Well, I can't really explain it, but this mirror has some strange powers. It can take you to any place or any time that you want just by thinking about it,"  
"Really?" she said, really interested.  
"Yes. I went back in time once using a mirror similar to this," he said, "The mirror I used was the nanban mirror from this world. But since it was destroyed when Ryoga came to your world, we used the nanban mirror from your world to get back to this one,"  
"It can take you back in time?"  
Ranma nodded.  
"Anytime you want?"  
He nodded again.  
"Why didn't you tell me that before? We can use this to go back to our own world and change time. We could go back to before the Second Impact and try and prevent it," Asuka said. Millions of ideas were flooding her mind. With the ability to go back in time, the limitations were limitless.  
Ranma shook his head, "We better not. You could end up totally screwing up the timeline. It's best left alone,"  
"You really think so?" Asuka said, eyeing Ranma critically, "What about the Nerima Massacre? Would you have wanted that prevented?"  
Ranma seemed to have thought about it for a moment and then shook his head, "No, I don't. I mean I would really want to. But then again, I could really screw the timeline up,"  
"Um, how does it work?" she asked innocently, changing the subject.  
Ranma smirked, "I ain't stupid. If you know how it works, you're gonna wanna go back to that time to change things,"  
Misato walked by them and noticed them deep in conversation, "Hey. What's up, Ranma?"  
He said, "Asuka wants to use the nanban mirror here to go back in time to change the timeline of her own world,"  
Misato eyes widened, "Y-you can do that?"  
He nodded, "Yes, but you can end up screwin' up the timeline. In a way, you can actually cause a Second Impact. Heck, considering how time is, you could be the indirect cause of it,"  
"How can she be the indirect cause of it?" Misato asked, "The Second Impact was caused when Adam was shrunken down to the size of an embryo,"  
"It doesn't matter, it could be cause through other means," he said. "Look, just don't mess around with it. Please. It seems easy. Y'know, go back in time, be there to prevent the Second Impact, and then come back, ne? Well, just being there could cause some kinda profound effect on the timeline. It's just that. Besides, even if you do prevent it, when unless you plan on living in that timeline, nothing will change for you,"  
"Huh?"  
"Well, when I went back in time, with some of my friends, what had happened back then must've changed the timeline bigtime, but, when I came back, it was back to the timeline I belong to," he said. "I betcha the timeline we left veered off in a different direction while we came back to our own timeline,"  
Misato sighed. She fully understood. She wanted to make sure and asked, "Lettme get this straight. Hypothetically speaking, we go back in time, prevent the Second Impact. Now, when we come back into the future, it'll be like we never left?"  
"Yep. The only way you can experience the new timeline is to stay behind. So, in a way, you will meet your own self," he said. "That means there will be you, and the your that was very young at the time. That's pretty dangerous because if you think about it, if you meet or come in contact with your own self...who knows what could happen,"  
Misato sighed, "Damn, I wish it wasn't that way. It does sound tempting though,"  
"Yeah, it does," Ranma said, "I mean, I've thought about it many times about going back and stoppin' the Nerima Massacre, but let's say I do? And I decided to stay? That means there's gonna be two of me. Myself, and the younger version of myself. And from what I think of it, I'm gonna be in the way. And if I come back into the future, it'll be back to this timeline, now,"  
Asuka and Misato sighed. "That sucks," Asuka commented.  
Ritsuko happened to be walking by when she heard Asuka's commented.  
"What sucks?" Ritsuko asked.  
Ranma turned toward her and went pretty much repeated the conversation.  
"Only if you stay behind?" Ritsuko asked.  
"Only if you stay behind will you be able to see the changed timeline," Ranma said.  
"Well, now that you clear things us," Asuka said, "It's no use going back in time then,"  
"Yep. That's what I've been trying to get at all this time,"  
"So how do you go back anyway?"  
Ranma chuckled, "I ain't stupid. I still ain't tellin' ya,"  
But Asuka wasn't stupid either. She was smarter than Ranma. Several hours had passed since that conversation. Misato and Ritsuko were no where to be seen, the two of them having gone out job hunting. Rei and Shinji were in the dojo watching Ranma teach. "Akane, can I ask you a question?"  
Akane was chopping onions, preparing dinner. She stopped what she was doing and turned toward Asuka.  
"What is it?"  
"Um, I was just curious," she began shyly, "Do you know how Ranma ended up, um, on our world?"  
Akane nodded, "Yeah. About four or five years ago, we, as in Ryoga and Ranma and I, we were in China. While there, we came across an Amazon village that Ranma and his father had been to once a long long time ago. Well, while there, Ranma found this odd looking box. He bought it. Anyway, he was told to never open it. But what does the baka do? He opens it. And somehow, he ends up on your world. I wasn't there, but that's what he told me and I don't see a reason for him to lie about it,"  
Akane waited for a short moment before she pretended curiosity and asked, "How did Ryoga get there? I mean, he just showed up out of nowhere,"  
"Well, after Ranma disappeared," Akane began, "Ryoga and I were trying to think of a way to get to where ever he went to. We waited for a couple of weeks because we figured Ranma would come back. Well, when he didn't, we realized that the only way to get to where he was was through the use of the nanban mirror. Well, lo and behold, a nearby museum had it. It was kind of a relic that had been found among the ruins after the `Nerima Massacre'. We told `em that that mirror was ours but they wouldn't give it to us. So, we stole it. I mean we broke into the museum and took it. It's nice having a big strong guy like Ryoga with ya when ya need it. He made it easy," She smiled.  
Asuka smiled. Now that the mirror was brought up, she could ask more about it without seeming suspicious, "Um, the nanban mirror, how does it work?"  
Akane smirked. "I'm not going to tell you. Ranma told me you might be curious as to how to use it. Sorry,"  
"H-he did?" Asuka said, "That's baka!"  
Akane chuckled, and said, "He also told me to tell you that after I told you that, that he also wanted me to tell you that he said `I'm not stupid.'"  
Asuka pouted.  
"In case you're wondering, Asuka, Ranma is nowhere near as stupid as you think he is," Akane commented. "Don't underestimate his intelligence. Also, he's extremely perceptive,"  
With that said, Akane went back to chopping onions.  
Ryoga showed up at the house the next day. He was eagerly greeted at the front door by Asuka.  
"Ryoga, just the person I wanted to see," Asuka said enthusiastically.  
"Hello, Asuka, how're you doing?" Ryoga said. "I'm fine. And you?"  
Asuka and Ryoga engaged in meaningless banter for a short while. After that she went about asking Ryoga the same questions she had asked Akane yesterday. The result was different though.  
"It's easy. All you have to do is shed a tear on it," Ryoga said, happy that Asuka seemed to be so interested in something and that he could be helpful, "It doesn't hafta be a genuine tear. Just rub your eyes with an onion, let the tear fall on the mirror pane and think clearly in your head about where and when you wanna be and you'll show up there. You can continue to do that until the tear either gets wiped off or dries up,"  
"You wouldn't happen to know where he keeps it, do you?"  
Ryoga shrugged his shoulders, "Sorry. He probably keeps it in his room."  
"All right. Thank you, Ryoga. I really appreciate all the information you've given me," Asuka said with fake happiness, giving Ryoga a quick embrace before entering the house.  
Ryoga stood there for a short while. Shrugging his shoulder, he left. He had no real idea why he was at the house in the first place anyway.  
Asuka was sneaking through Ranma's drawers the next day when Ranma entered his room.  
"What are you doing?" Ranma asked.  
Asuka blushed. She had just been caught red handed. "If you're looking to steal my underwear they're in the top drawer," Ranma smirked. "I'm a bit shocked, Asuka-chan. I mean, I only thought boys stole women's underwear. You're the first girl I ever saw that tried to steal a man's underwear,"  
Asuka blushed beet red as she said, "I-I was not trying to s-steal your u-underwear!"  
Ranma walked over to the draw with his underwear and pulled it out. She quickly turned her back toward Ranma as he reached into the back of the drawer and pulled out the nanban mirror, "You shouldn't've skipped over this draw. If you were anywhere near as perverted as you pretend you're not to be, then you would've found it,"  
"Give me that!" Asuka shouted, reaching for the mirror. When Ranma raised his hand up and out of her reach, Asuka proceeded to jump up and down in an attempt to grab it.  
Ranma smirked and brought one of his underwear up and practically into Asuka's face, "Are you sure you're not tryin' to grab this?"  
Asuka, seeing the underwear nearly pressed into her face, lost balance when she landed. Her arms flailed causing her to grab the underwear just as she fell backwards and onto her rear end. Shinji, who was walking by when he heard all the commotion from Ranma's room. He tentatively peeked his head in. "What's going on?"  
Ranma pointed toward Asuka, "She's stealing my underwear! She's such a pervert! I came into my room to get a change of clothes and I see her looking through my drawers for my underwear. I betcha she was trying to steal it because she wants to wear `em or something," He jerked his thumb toward the tiny hamper in the corner of his room, "I betcha after that, she was gonna steal my used underwear. Ewwww! That's gross!"  
"I was not!" Asuka shouted, getting to her feet. "Then what's that in your hand!" Ranma said accusingly, trying his best not to laugh.  
Asuka looked down and saw Ranma's underwear. "Eek!" She threw away from her as fast as possible.  
Shinji looked at the underwear as it landed in the corner. He caught Ranma's wink.  
"I-I never knew you stole men's underwear," Shinji commented, realizing Ranma was teasing the poor girl.  
"I was not stealing Ranma's underwear!" she shouted, blushing beet red. "And you stay outta this, Shinji-baka! It's none of your business!"  
"What were you going to do with `em? Wear `em?" Ranma said with a smirk.  
Asuka was extremely flustered. She could easily handle Shinji but she could not handle Ranma.  
"Argh!" Asuka shouted, "I was not! I wasn't going to wear them!"  
"You don't use `em as a, um, stimulus for when you touch yourself, do you?"  
"T-touch myself?" Asuka's eyes widened. "I-I do no such thing!"  
Shinji's nose started bleeding. He had to rush out of the room.  
Misato and Ritsuko rushed into the room.  
"What's going on? What's Shinji's nose bleeding?"  
Ranma burst out laughing. "Because he found out Asuka touches herself,"  
"I do not!"  
"I hope you don't picture me naked. I mean, you have seen me naked recently," Ranma commented with a smirk.  
Ritsuko and Misato blushed. They did not need to hear that because they immediately pictured Ranma naked when he said that.  
"I do not!" Asuka shouted. She was so flustered that even her ears were turning red. "I was here for the mirror!" "Do you see a mirror around here?" Ranma asked, looking around.  
"That's because you have it!" Asuka said.  
He brought both hands up, "I don't see a mirror," Asuka ran up to Ranma and proceeded to frisk him. "You hid it somewhere on yourself! I know you did!"  
Ranma pretended to be startled, "Whoa, watch where that hand goes,"  
"I did not touch you there!" Asuka shouted. She turned toward Misato, "Misato, please frisk him. He has the mirror on him somewhere. He was holding it a second ago,"  
Misato sighed. Noticing how flustered Asuka was, she decided, because of the kindness of her heart, to frisk Ranma like Asuka had asked. "I see no reason to look for this mirror, Asuka. It's gonna be of no use,"  
She started patting him down. She found a flood of heat rushing to her already flustered cheeks, when her hands pressed against Ranma's rock hard chest and his tight abdomen. She even came reasonably close to touching Ranma's manhood but came up empty handed.  
"Did you enjoy that?" Ranma smirked, making her blush more. "Well as you can see, I don't have it."  
"Then it's somewhere still in this room," Asuka commented, proceeding to look pan around on the ground through the clothes strewn about.  
"Have fun," Ranma said, eyeing Misato a bit longer than she wanted him to. He left the room while all three girls proceeded to scour through the room for the mirror. Ritsuko and Misato didn't want to look for it because they didn't want to go back, but they decided to help Asuka out.  
Out in the hallway, Ranma walked up to Shinji, who leaning against a wall and looking up at the ceiling, holding his nose.  
"You okay?" Shinji nodded slightly. He gestured toward Ranma's room while still looking up, "Um, what's going on in your room?"  
Ranma leaned against the wall Shinji was leaning against and crossed his arms, chuckling, "They're looking for the mirror,"  
Asuka emerged from his bedroom and looked at Ranma, "Where's the mirror? I don't see it!"  
Ranma smirked, "So? You're not lookin' hard enough,"  
She looked at Shinji and noticed his bloody nose. She knew what he had been thinking about when his nose started bleeding, "You pervert! Get your mind out of the gutter! I'll talk to you later!" She went back into Ranma's bedroom, muttering a swear word in German.  
Ranma turned toward Shinji, "You're like Ryoga. He gets bloody noses too. Actually, he's much worse,"  
"H-he does? He is?" "Yep," Ranma said, "Like once, he accidentally wandered into the female locker room of the high school we went to. He fainted,"  
"I don't see it!" Asuka emerged from the room again.  
"So?" Ranma replied, "Who cares if ya don't see it or not..."  
"Hmph!" Asuka said, turning back around and entering the room.  
Ranma chuckled, "Women. Can't live with `em." And said nothing else.  
Shinji chuckled. "Um, you seem to enjoy teasing Asuka,"  
"She's easy to tease," he replied, "Plus, she seems to enjoy teasing you, so I tease her back because of it,"  
"Um, t-thank you, I guess..." Shinji said meekly. After a short moment, curiosity got the better of him and he asked, "Um, what did you do with the mirror?"  
"Huh? Oh that, I gave it to you. I slipped it into your pocket as you were about to leave," Ranma replied. He pulled the mirror out of Shinji's pocket and smiled, "See,"  
"Where's the mirror? I don't see it!" Asuka now whined, coming back out of Ranma's room once again.  
Ranma put his hands in front of him and said, "Look, I don't have the mirror. Jeez. You searched me,"  
Asuka sighed as she went back into Ranma's room.  
"I better not find any missing underwear," Ranma said after her. She twitched slightly before she entered the room.  
"W-where'd the mirror go?" Shinji asked when Ranma's turned toward him.  
Ranma reached back into Shinji's pocket and pulled it back out, "I put it back in when she came back out,"  
"B-but I didn't even see your hand move, let alone put it in my pocket,"  
Ranma smirked, "And neither did Asuka. I'm pretty quick with sleight of hand. C'mon, let's go downstairs before the girls realize the mirror ain't in my room,"  
Ranma entered the kitchen and handed Akane the mirror.  
"Here, take this, everyone's upstairs destroying my room, looking for this," Ranma said. He leaned over and took a whiff of the dinner Akane was preparing. Rei was next to her chopping some scallions.  
"Smells good," he commented. He dipped his hand into the sauce Akane was preparing, and licked his fingertip, "Tastes good. Needs more marjoram,"  
Akane glared at Ranma, "Well, that's because I'm not finished with adding the ingredients,"  
"Anyway, please look out over the mirror for me," he said, "Everyone seems to be after it." He turned toward Rei and smiled, "Well, not everyone. At least a few people still have a good head on their shoulders," He gave Rei's head a rather paternal rub. She smiled slightly.  
"Whatcha doin'?" he asked.  
"I'm cutting the scallions,"  
"And a fine job you're doing," he added with a smile.  
Ranma stopped for a moment to listen, "Ah, here they come,"  
"Perhaps you should let them have it," Akane commented, "I mean, they seem very eager to change the change their past,"  
"Yeah, but what for? Not unless they plan on staying behind..." he answered.  
"If that's what they wanted, who're we to keep them here,"  
Ranma was about to say something but didn't. He seemed to be in deep thought about it.  
"You think I should give it to `em?" he looked at the mirror. "All right, how about I have a talk with `em, to see if this is really way they want?"  
"That sounds like a good idea," Akane replied, "We could all talk about this over dinner,"  
Asuka was the first to enter the kitchen, "We couldn't find the mirror,"  
Ranma picked up the mirror and said, "That's because I have it,"  
Her eyes lit up. "I'm not gonna give it to ya," Ranma said, his face serious, "Anyway, Akane and I have just had a discussion and it seems like I should give you the mirror,"  
"That's good to hear," Asuka said with a smile.  
Ritsuko and Misato looked at each other. Something must be up.  
"But first, I wanna have a chat with you on exactly what you're getting yourself into," he said sternly, his eyes creasing toward Asuka, "Is that all right?"  
Asuka thought about it for a moment before she said,  
"All right,"  
The chat over dinner didn't turn out the way Ranma had expected. Asuka was still steadfast on going back to her own world and changing the past. Although she had been told countless times that she would never be able to see the changes if she succeed unless she stay and that her actually staying there could probably destroy the timeline, she still wanted to go back.  
"Is there a reason for this?" Ranma asked.  
Asuka looked up from her food and said, "I still wanna go back. I want my other self to have a life I never had,"  
Ranma smiled a bit, "That's very caring, but you do know you'll never be able to see how your other self will turn out. Besides, it's probably impossible to stop the Second Impact,"  
"It doesn't matter," she said, "I want her to live a better life. Besides, who knows if you never try," She didn't bother to mention that she didn't want her other self to have to go through life with the thought of her mother going insane and thinking a doll was her daughter.  
"How about you, Misato? Would you wanna go back?" Asuka asked her.  
"No," Misato answered and then continued to eat. "No offense, Asuka, but you're gonna be disappointed because Ranma's probably right and the Second Impact is probably impossible to stop. First of all, we have no idea why Adam showed up in the first place,"  
"I am not going back either," Ritsuko said. "There's no reason. I mean, if I planned on staying, I would go, but I'm not, so I'm gonna stay here. Besides, I think the task is too hard,"  
"Count me out," Shinji said. He would have considered going with he because he wanted to be near Asuka, but it would be useless. He knew he would be mostly in the way.  
"That's because you're a wimp!" Akane sneered at him.  
"No, perhaps because he was never born," Ranma said. "You're the only one here that seems to wanna prevent something that's, well, cataclysmic in scale. I mean if ya wanna stop someone from getting killed, all right. But stopping something that would eventually kill billions must be one helluva task,"  
Asuka didn't bother to ask Rei. She knew Rei would not want to come back. There was no reason either.  
"Looks like you're gonna be the only one going back, Asuka," Misato commented.  
"No, I'm gonna go with her," Ranma said.  
"What? I don't want you coming back with me!"  
Ranma grinned, "Well, too bad. In case you're wondering, I can come in quite helpful from time to time. What would you do if you reappear somewhere over what Tokyo-3 used to be and you're several hundred feet about the ground? You're gonna die from the fall and you'll never be able to get back,"  
Asuka was very very silent. She had never thought about that.  
"I'm coming with you to make sure you arrive safely and carry out or at least attempt your insane task,"  
"It's not an insane task," Asuka said.  
"I dunno about you," Ranma said, "But trying to stop a world changing event must be right up there near impossible."  
Asuka almost pouted.  
"I'll help you out as much as I can, but I can only do so much," he said. He then continued on with his eating. After a moment, he said,  
"We'll leave tomorrow."  
Everyone woke up early. It was a beautiful morning, the perfect morning to take off on a trip, whether it be a trip across the country or through time.  
"Don't over do yourselves," Akane said.  
"I know. We'll be back before ya know it," Ranma said. He looked over toward Asuka, he seemed eager to go back to her own world, but wasn't all that eager to be going back with Ranma. Although she hadn't slept all night, too eager about the upcoming event, she wasn't at all tired. She had drank several cups of coffee to wash away any form of drowsiness.  
Ranma pulled out a wad of cash from his bag, and said to Asuka, "The money in the bag and the clothes on our backs are all we're gonna bring back with us,"  
"Don't fuck up the timeline any more than it had already been," Misato commented wryly.  
Ranma waved a hand and said with a chuckle, "From what I saw, what with messengers from heaven coming down to destroy humanity, I think there's plenty of other paths that it could go down that would make the world much better off,"  
He turned toward Asuka, "Well, ya ready?"  
Asuka nodded. She wrapped an arm around Ranma's.  
"Jeez, I can't believe I'm gonna rub an onion in my eyes,"  
"Get on with it!" Akane told Ranma impatiently.  
"All right. All right," he said. He rubbed an onion in his eyes and let the tear fall to onto the mirror pane.  
Ranma and Asuka both disappeared.  
"Well well well, it turns out you will need my help afterall," Ranma commented wryly.  
Asuka shrieked as she realized she was falling down toward the ground at a rapid descent.  
"You're gonna make me go deaf," Ranma said, "I've got it under control. Just hold on tight,"  
She did as she was told, nearly strangling Ranma as she wrapped her arms around Ranma's neck tightly, loosening slightly when Ranma told her she was choking him.  
Asuka shut her eyes at the last moment as she realized she was going to hit the ground. But she never felt herself hit the ground. After a minute, she slowly opened her eyes and was shocked to notice the solid ground below her and that Ranma was standing firmly on it. Without saying thanks you, Asuka jumped out of Ranma's arms and nearly hugged the ground, realizing she was being watched at the last moment.  
Ranma looked around, "This looks like Tokyo. Hm, what year is it?" He was surrounded by buildings on all sides. People were walking about, many of them standing still and staring at the two people that landed in the middle of the street out of nowhere.  
"Yeah, it does," Asuka said.  
"C'mon, people are starin'," Ranma said, taking Asuka's arm and walking down the street, "We don't wanna bring attention to ourselves,"  
Asuka obediently obliged. Then again, there was no way she could break from or Ranma's grasp anyway.  
"Looks pretty peaceful. Looks a lot like home doesn't it?" Ranma commented. "Hey, look, isn't that Tokyo Tower?"  
Asuka followed Ranma's gaze, "Yeah, that is. This must be Tokyo, the original one."  
"All right, when and where does this Second Impact take place? Actually, I know it take place in Antarctica, but I have no idea when it happens,"  
Asuka walked over to a nearby garbage can and picked up a newspaper.  
"We have exactly one month to get to Antarctica," she said, throwing the newspaper back into the receptacle. "So what do we do until then?"  
"What else? We eat,"  
Asuka watched Ranma with scorn. He ate like a horse. He had ordered everything on the breakfast menu except for the alcohol. "You're a pig," Asuka sneered, slowly nibbling on her salad.  
"Thanks,"  
"That's not meant to be a compliment," Asuka said.  
"So?" Ranma didn't bother to look up from his meal, "You're jus' jealous cause you're a girl and ya can't eat like I can,"  
"What makes you say that?" Asuka spat, "What makes you think I'm jealous?"  
Ranma looked up and smirked, "Yeah, right. I sure you enjoy that delicious salad of yours,"  
Asuka looked down at her salad. She then looked up at him.  
"If you're interested, I can speed up your metabolism," Ranma continued to eat, he ignored the stares the females in the room was giving him.  
"No you can't"  
"All right. Forget I mentioned it. I jus' figured you'd actually like to eat a real meal for a change and not hafta worry about your weight and all," he waved for the waiter to come around. When she came around, he said, "I'd like another two plates of sausages and eggs and bacons,"  
The waiter bowed and left the table.  
"I betcha your cholesterol's through the roof," she said wryly. "And considering you age..."  
"I betcha not." Ranma said. He leaned back on his chair while he waited for his next serving of food, "How come you're like this?"  
"What? What do you mean by that?"  
"Why do ya make rude comments about everything?" he said, eyeing her critically, "I'm here trying to enjoy a meal and you're making comments about how I'm a pig, how I oughta have a cholesterol level that's through the roof, and about my age. Did I say anything to offend you?"  
Asuka was silent.  
"So, back to before, are you interested in a faster metabolism?" Ranma said. When the lady came back with two plate full of food he said, "Thank you," "Um, yeah, well, um, kinda,"  
"Get over here then," Ranma said, indicating the seat right next to him. Asuka had been sitting in the seat on the other side of the table.  
Asuka reluctantly got up from her seat and did as she was told. When she saw next to him, Ranma got up and walk around her to face her back. She gasped but said nothing as she saw Ranma's hand reach over her front and touch the center of her chest. She felt three fingers pressed firmly against her sternum and two fingers pressed against the small of her back.  
Asuka blushed. She noticed all the envious stared all the females in the restaurant was giving her.  
After a short moment, Ranma released his pressure point.  
"Enjoy. Go eat yourself to oblivion," he said as he sat down.  
"I don't feel anything,"  
"Quit bein' so skeptic," Ranma said exasperated, "Here take have this plate. I haven't gotten `round to eating it yet,"  
"Um, thank you,"  
"I'm hungry again,"  
"Well," Ranma said with a smirk, "That's because you're not used to the new metabolism and have no self control,"  
"I do have self control!" she spat, her hands clenching, "What makes you think otherwise?"  
"Then don't be hungry," he said, "We only ate a few hours ago. And the funny thing is that we didn't eat Chinese food. You get hungry every few hours even though you stuff yourself. C'mon, we still have some more things to buy,"  
Ranma and Asuka were at a local mall buying jackets in preparation to the upcoming trip to a harsh cold climate.  
"How's this look?" he asked, bringing a bright orange jacket up in front of him.  
Asuka gave Ranma an odd look. "That jacket looks ugly on you," she commented, "How can you wear something that color? It looks more like a life jacket than instead of a winter one,"

Ranma emerged from the bathroom, clad in the bathrobe he had bought a the mall earlier, busy drying his hair with a towel. He and Asuka were in a tiny a motel room.  
He looked over toward the bed where Asuka seemed to be attempting to sleep. She was twisting and turning. "Can't sleep?"  
Asuka ignored Ranma as she pretended to be asleep.  
"No use ignoring me, I know you're havin' trouble sleeping,"  
Asuka continued to ignore him.  
"I'll take advantage of you," Ranma said wryly, "I mean, we're alone afterall,"  
"Don't you dare!" Asuka shouted, sitting upright, color flooding to her cheeks.  
Ranma laid down his futon on the floor next to Asuka's bed, "You're so easy to tease, y'know that?"  
He walked over to Asuka's bed.  
"W-w-what are you doing?" she said, bringing the sheets up to her neck and scooting back. She only had her night gown on. "I-I'll scream if y-  
you try and rape me!"  
"Get your mind outta the gutter!" Ranma muttered, "I ain't gonna do nothing. Jeez. I'm just gonna touch one of your pressure points that'll put you to sleep,"  
"Pressure points?"  
"Yeah, like your metabolism. I once putcha to sleep by hitting your pressure point," Ranma said, "You didn't know I touched your pressure point. Anyway, if ya wanna sleep easier, I could always hit your sleep pressure point,"  
"N-no, I don't wantcha to," she quickly said.  
Ranma shrugged his shoulders.  
"All right, have it your way,"  
He walked back over to the light switch and turned off the light. Asuka was able to see through the tiny amount of light that came in through the slightly open drapes. She caught a silhouette of Ranma taking off his bathrobe. She noticed that he was clad in nothing but his boxers.  
"G'night," he muttered before lying down on his futon.  
He closed his eyes and went to sleep.  
Asuka didn't.

"Ranma,"  
Ranma opened his eyes, "What do ya want, Asuka?" He looked over toward the digital clock in the front of the room, "Ya know what time it is? It's three in the morning,"  
There a moment of silence. He then heard Asuka whisper, "I-I can't sleep,"  
"What do ya want me to do?" he said, sitting upright, yawning and rubbing his eyes.  
Asuka could see Ranma's naked top silhouetted from the moonlight.  
"Um, c-can you do that, um, pressure point thing?"  
"Jeez," Ranma got up sleepily, "Yeah, fine." He yawned, "Maybe next time you would listen to me," He walked over to Asuka's bed and sat down next to her. She was almost shaking.  
"There's gotta be somethin' wrong with you," Ranma commented drearily, still half asleep, "What the hell do ya think I'm gonna do, take advantage of ya or something? Jeez, you don't know me at all, now do you?" He pulled the blankets away and pressed his fingertips on Asuka's pressure points, which happened to be by her right breast. He heard her gasp and noticed her heart was racing. After a second, her breathing steadied and the heart rate slowed down to a normal rate.  
"G'night," Ranma muttered, exasperated, pulling the covers back on Asuka.  
He walked around the bed.  
"Maybe next time you would listen to me," Ranma muttered before going back to sleep.

Asuka woke up feeling totally refreshed. It was a feeling she had never really experienced and could get quite used to. It was very addictive.  
She looked around and noticed that Ranma wasn't in his futon anymore. Just as she wondered where he was, he emerged from the bathroom. He was fully dressed.  
"Well well well, it's about time sleepy head woke up," Ranma said.  
"Um, morning," she said.  
"Yeah, mornin'," Ranma replied. He walked over to the front of the room and proceeded to do some push ups. "The bathroom's all yours,"  
Asuka got up out of her bed and went to the bathroom, grateful that Ranma was busy with his push ups and unable to see her rather skimpy night gown. She took a nice long shower. When she emerged from her shower, fully dressed, she saw Ranma standing in the middle of the room, in deep concentration as he did some Tai Chi movement. She was shocked to see a faint yet very evident blue aura surrounding him as he went through his slow yet graceful movements.  
She watched for several minutes until Ranma was obviously finished with his forms and faced her.  
"Um, t-that looks cool," she commented.  
"I learned it when I was, what, five or so," he said. He walked over to the tiny pile of things in the corner of the room, which consisted of a large backpack and a rolled up futon.  
"Let's get goin'," he said, handing Asuka her own backpack, "I took the liberty of packin' up your things."  
"Where are we going?" she asked.  
"Where else? Antarctica," he said, "From here, we'll head south till we hit the ocean. And from there, we find a vessel headed for Antarctica. We only have a month. That's gonna be cuttin' it close. We should be able to make it with a day or so to spare,"  
Asuka was wondering if that was a good idea. A month out on sea... "Um, okay, let's go then,"  
"You're pathetic," Ranma smirked.  
Asuka didn't care. She was way too tired to go on. They had been walking for the past thirteen hours, stopping once to eat. She was dead tired. Ranma was now carrying her in a piggy back style.  
"I'm still a kid, y'know," Asuka said wearily. It was now around midnight and they had been walking since they woke up. She had never used that as an excuse in her life, but found it really reassuring that she could say that without guilty.  
"We only have five more miles ago," he said. He knew it was useless because she was dead tired. "We'll be at the docks by then. Once we get on the ship, then we can...ah forget it. Goto sleep,"  
Ranma continued down the street, Asuka asleep in his arms. "It was her idea, hmph"

Asuka woke up to the in an unfamiliar setting.  
"W-what? Where am I?" she said, looking around. She noticed she had been sleeping on a bunk bed. She was in some kind of tiny sleeping quarters.  
W-where's R-Ranma? Asuka immediately thought to herself. She noticed she was alone.  
As if on cue, Ranma entered the tiny room.  
"Sleep well?" he asked with a grin.  
"Where are we? What kinda ship are we on?" she asked.  
"The Epsilon," Ranma answered, "It's a tiny family sail boat I bought off someone right on the spot. As of right now, I am flat broke. I mean, no cash. I gave the guy everything I've got. But not to worry, we have plenty of food,"  
"How much did you spend?"  
"Everything I had. That's a little over a million three hundred thousand yen," he said. "Anyway, we're stuck with each other until we reach Antarctica,"  
"This is a private boat?"  
"Yep,"  
Asuka swore in German.  
"What didja say? What language is that?"  
"It's German for `Shit',"  
"Frankfurter,"  
"Huh?" Asuka looked at Ranma.  
"That's the only German word I know. Oh, and sauerkraut,"  
Asuka almost chuckled. "Well, anyway," Ranma said, "There's a shower stall just to the left of your sleeping quarters. Go take a shower. I'll meetcha up deck,"

Asuka came up deck and took in a breath of fresh air. It was around noontime when she emerged from below deck.  
Ranma was busy reeling up the sails, "Well, lil miss princess finally decided to pop up. How nice of you to bestow me with your presence,"  
"Ha ha, really funny," Asuka muttered, "Baka!"  
She looked around. The boat wasn't at all shabby. Rather, it was a bit extravagant. But one thing she noticed immediately, as she looked around and saw the vast ocean expanding on all sides, it was void of life except for Ranma.  
"W-we're t-the only ones on this boat?" Asuka asked. Her heart was in her throat. She thought she was going to end up on some kind of fishing boat, were there were others around. She didn't know if she could handle practically a month's worth of being on the same boat with Ranma, a person she wasn't at all fond of.  
"Bingo," Ranma said with a smile, continuing to reel the sails up. Once they were fully up, the wind caught and the boat started to jet across the sea. "There ya go. That's more like it,"  
"We're alone..." Asuka said. She looked down at her hands. They were trembling.  
"Yep," he said, "I'm not lookin' forward to spending a month alone with ya, but there were no other ships. We coulda taken a fishing ship-"  
"So why didn't we?"  
"They do go as far south as we needed to go," he answered for her, "We would hafta swim the last two hundred or so miles. Although I could easily do that, I'm pretty sure you can't. Besides, even if you could swim that far, you would die of hypothermia,"  
Asuka slumped down against the starboard railing, "I can't do this,"  
Ranma shrugged his shoulders, "Ya wanna turn back?" He reached into his pocket and pulled out the nanban mirror, "We could head back,"  
Asuka looked at the mirror. She had called Shinji a wimp and she would surely be one if she couldn't even last long enough to get to Antarctica. She didn't want Shinji to be right, to acknowledge that he was right, that the task was near impossible.  
"Forget I mentioned it," she said with a resigned sigh, "I-I can hack it..."  
"All right," he said, "It'd be a shame if we give up now,"  
"Oh?"  
Ranma smiled, "C'mon, I'm rather enjoying this. I've only been sailing a few times in my life. It's fun,"  
"At least one of us is having fun," she muttered, annoyed.  
"Well, you're the one who's hell bent on changing the past. Well, here's your chance," he said with a shrug, "If you wanna turn back, we can turn back. Heck, we could go home whenever we like. I do have the mirror afterall,"  
"No," Asuka said, a bit more confident, "I can handle something like this," She wanted to prove everyone wrong, even Ranma, that stopping the Second Impact wasn't impossible. She wanted to laugh in all of their faces when she succeeded.  
"You know anythin' about sailing?" Ranma asked.  
Asuka shook her head. "Um, not really."  
"Well, now's the best time to learn."

It was a beautiful and very hot day out when Ranma had decided to have a bit of relaxation. A few days had passed without incident as the two made their trek south. As the Epsilon was crossing over the equator at just about noontime when Asuka emerged from below deck.  
She caught sight of Ranma as he was reeling down the sails.  
"What're you doing?" she asked curiously. The only time he had lowered the sail was during the a storm two days ago.  
"We're making great progress," Ranma said, "I'm gonna go have some fun. I'm gonna go for a dip. It's a great day out. Sure, the water's probably cold, but I won't mind,"  
When the sails were down, and boat came to a stop, Ranma proceeded to strip.  
"W-what are you doing?" Asuka said, blushing. Ranma had taken off his shirt before she realized he was stripping.  
Ranma gave Asuka and odd look, "What do ya think I'm doin'? I'm stripping. I'm goin' for a dip,"  
He picked the anchor up and threw it overboard, "Yeah, like it's ever gonna reach the bottom. Huh? Damn, it actually reached the bottom. I guess it isn't so deep over here. Hey, Asuka, you're welcome to join if you'd like,"  
Ranma, wearing nothing but his boxers, dove into the water. When he resurfaced, he said, "Hey, Asuka, ya might wanna give this a try. The water's actually very warm,"  
Asuka looked over the side of the boat and at the water. It was a beautiful day out, she was hot, and she could use a good swim. The water looked so inviting.  
"I have nothing to wear," she said regretfully. She wished she had bought a swimming suit. She had no idea that she would be taking a dip because, while she was shopping, she kept thinking about how cold Antarctica was, not how warm the trek there would be.  
"So?" Ranma said, "Who cares? I'm the only here,"  
"So? What do you mean by `so'?" Ranma said, "You're going to see me in my bra and panties!"  
Ranma said, "All right, then don't. I don't really care."  
Asuka looked down at Ranma. Hundreds of questions raced through her mind. She wondered if it was all right for Ranma to see her like that. If it were possible to take a dip with her clothes on? She dismissed that because she only had a few pairs of clothes and could afford to use the fresh water to clean them. "All right, I'm going in," she finally said, daring to live a little. She proceeded to strip down to her bra and panties. After that, she quickly ran up to the edge of the boat and leapt off, hoping Ranma didn't get a good peek.  
Ranma whistled teasingly, "I never knew ya liked wearing blue bra and panties"  
"Shut up!" she shouted, splashing water in Ranma's direction. He grinned. He didn't nothing else. After teasing her shortly, he decided to swim further out to sea.  
"Where are you going?"  
"I'll be right back," he said. He swam away from the boat. Asuka had to admire to speed of which Ranma swam and the ripples of his muscles tightening and loosening. About a hundred yards from the boat, Ranma proceeded to swim around the boat, maintaining the same radius away from it also.  
Asuka decided to take a swim also. She was in very good shape too. She swam away from the boat to around a hundred yards. She then proceed to swim around the boat but in the opposite direction, expecting to meet Ranma halfway.  
Ranma was impressed when Asuka nearly met him at the halfway point.  
"Not bad," Ranma said, "You're a very good swimmer. How about a race to the boat?"  
"You're on!" she said, accepting his challenge. She immediately swam toward the boat as fast as she could.  
"You better swim faster cause I'm gonna catch ya," Ranma said a second later, giving her a head start. After she was about halfway to the boat, Ranma took off and swam toward her as fast as he could. By the time she was about twenty yards away from the boat, Ranma grabbed her ankle.  
"Gotcha!" he said with an evil grin.  
Asuka screamed and giggled at the same time.  
Ranma pulled her toward him, slowing her down while he shot right by her. Asuka had been expecting him to do something. She grabbed his boxers and gave them a good tug.  
"Why you!" he said. He quickly ducked under waters to put his boxers back on right.  
When he resurfaced, Asuka was already on the boat, grinning evilly.  
"You lose!" she shouted in triumph. Her eyes widened in shock and she shouted at the top of her lungs, "Ranma!"  
"What?"  
Asuka cried out Ranma's name again just as the shark reached him and clamped its jaw down on Ranma's shoulder. She heard something escape Ranma's mouth just as he was pulled underwater.  
"Ranma!" Asuka shouted helplessly.  
Knowing that she had to do something, she quickly rushed into below deck, hoping to find some kind of weapon like a harpoon. She could find nothing. The closest thing she found was a knife they used for cooking.  
Hoping that the knife was good enough, Asuka rushed back up deck. When she reached the siding, she looked out into the patch of water where Ranma had been attacked by the shark. She saw nothing. Nothing. Just calm open sea.  
"Ranma! Where are you?" she shouted frantically. All of a sudden, Ranma resurfaced several yards away from the boat. Asuka's mouth widened as she saw Ranma physically preventing the shark's mouth from clamping down on him. The shark was in front of him, struggling to bite his head off.  
Ranma shouted "Asuka, stay the hell on the boat! There's more than one shark!"  
All of a sudden, he was pulled back underwater from underneath.  
Ranma cursed underwater as he felt another shark's jaw clamp down on his right ankle.  
Screaming in pain, Ranma lost his grip of the shark he was battling, allowing for the shark to clamp its powerful jaws down on his upper torso, swallowing his entire right arm and shoulder between its teeth.  
Pissed off, Ranma has had enough of this. With his free left arm, he jammed his finger into the shark's right eyes, causing it to release its jaw lock on him.  
With his hand free, Ranma used his slightly injured arm to jam his finger right into the shark's other arm.  
"Heh, you're gonna be my lunch later!" Ranma said, no words escaping his mouth due to the water.  
No longer needing to worry about the shark ahead of him, Ranma turned his attention toward the shark gnawing at his right ankle.  
"Yeah right!" Ranma said while still underwater. "Get real!"  
He used the heel of his free leg to kick and slammed it right into one of the shark's eyes. That shark, too, released its jaw lock on him. When he was free, Ranma brought both hand in front of him and released another ki-blast, sending it right through the sharks open jaw and out its fins, dead before it realized it. The shark, bleeding profusely, slowly descended toward the bottom of the ocean.  
Asuka stood helplessly at the side of the body as she saw a flailing shark just feet below the water. She also saw a faint outline of Ranma fighting underwater below.  
"Ranma!" she screamed as she saw the water suddenly turn red. She was already imagining the worse, that Ranma had been seriously wounded. She saw the shark right in front of her. She had a knife. If she leapt off the side of the boat, she could land on the flailing shark and perhaps kill it. But Ranma had told her not to come into the water, that there were other sharks around. What should she do?  
Ranma slowly swum toward the surface to finish of the first shark. He surfaced to catch his breath.  
"Ranma!" Asuka cried out as a wave of relief washed over her. Ranma was okay. He was alive.  
"Be right back!" Ranma said, taking in a deep breath and then ducking his head back underwater. Underwater, he swam to the underside of the shark where he proceeded to send several devastatingly powerful punches right at the shark, rupturing its internal organs. After several blows, the shark stopped flailing, dead.  
Satisfied, Ranma looked around in case there were more sharks. He saw two off in the distance. They would be of no threat to him, now that he was aware of their presence. Not wanting to fight anymore, Ranma swam to the back of the shark and grabbed its and then proceed to swim back to the boat.  
"Guess what?" Ranma said with a grin, "Looks like we're gonna be eatin' shark tonight," He climbed up onto the boat from behind, hoisting the thousand plus pound shark onto the deck with one arm.  
Asuka stared down at the dead shark, its mouth still open.  
"Careful, Asuka," Ranma cautioned her, "The shark's death, but even if it's dead, it could still close its mouth. Lettme show you," He reached his arm into the shark's mouth. The shark's mouth closed on Ranma's extended arm. Asuka screamed.  
"It's okay. I'm fine," Ranma said. He used his free hand to forcibly open the dead shark's mouth open.  
Asuka looked at Ranma's arm. There were no bite marks, no breaks in the skin.  
Ranma sat down on the floor in laid down, "Damn, that was an intense battle," he said. He winced, in pain as he reached his hand back to touch the wounds around his back. It was the initial attack that had hurt Ranma.  
"Y-you're hurt!" Asuka said, quickly rushing to Ranma's side. There were four teeth marks running down his back. He was bleeding.  
Ranma leaned against the side of the boat. The exhaustion was finally catching up to him. He had extended and extreme amount of energy fighting those two sharks. It was the act of battling while underwater that took so much out of him. That single ki blast he had shot while underwater, was almost the strength of a seppukku blast to in order to be effective. That single ki blast, had almost exhausted him.  
Ranma's breathing was heavy and strained. He managed to keep conscious for a short while before he closed his eyes and lapsed into unconsciousness.  
"Ranma!"

Asuka was by Ranma's bedside when he awoke a day later.  
"R-Ranma, you're okay,"  
"Yeah, I'm much better now," he said, slowly getting off his bed and onto his feet. The bed sheet fell to his feel. He looked down and realized he was still in the boxer he had been wearing when attacked and that there were several bandaged wrapping across his chest and right shoulder. "Um, thanks for addressin' my wounds,"  
Asuka had been worried sick about Ranma. She was watching him and hadn't heard him thank her for her concern. "Ya hear me?"  
"Um, oh, yeah. I heard you," "You're all right, right?" he asked, "None of the sharks got to ya, did they?"  
Asuka shook her head. Was Ranma concerned about her? He should be worried about himself and his injuries, not her...  
Ranma slowly removed the bandages that Asuka had addressed.  
"W-what are you doing? You have to leave them on," she said, "Otherwise, your wounds won't heal,"  
The bandages removed, Ranma turned his naked back toward Asuka, "Are the wounds still there? Are they gone yet?"  
Asuka's eyes widened as she stared at Ranma's flawless back. There were no wounds.  
"W-what the hell happened to your wounds?" she stammered pointing. "You had four teeth marks running down the length of your back!"  
"I heal quickly," Ranma said, "In case you're wondering, I went unconscious from exhaustion, not the wounds. I mean, the wounds did hurt, but they weren't serious, let alone fatal" He smiled and added, "It's a bit hard to kill me,"  
"I don't get it, you're wounds, they're gone," she said, looking up at Ranma.  
Still shirtless, he went up deck, having to shield his eyes from the bright sunlight. It was around ten or so.  
Asuka followed Ranma closely, still expecting an answered.  
Ranma looked at the sails and noticed they were up, "Ah, you put the sails up,"  
"I had to pass the time," Asuka answered. She had to keep her mind occupied. So many times the thought of Ranma dying from his wounds had passed by through her mind. So many times she had almost broke down crying, scared that he was going to die.  
"About my wounds," Ranma said after a moment, "like I said, I heal quickly. It usually takes a few days for wounds to heal, but I guess since I was also asleep, I must've healed quicker,"  
He walked over to the navigational gauges and read them and then looked at the map. "Asuka, I'm impressed," he said with a warm smile, "You actually got us to where we're supposed to be, despite my being unconscious,"  
Asuka blushed a bit and said, "Well, it's not like I'm incompetent or anything. I could work the ship without you,"  
Ranma had to acknowledge that. He looked over toward the back of the boat where the dead shark was. It was slowly decomposing and reeked of a foul odor.  
"Whoa, that's nasty," Ranma commented, holding his nose. "Well, it looks like we won't be eating shark after all. The meat's probably spoiled, having be out in the sun and all. Oh well, we'll get ourselves another one,"  
Asuka watched as Ranma walked over to the slightly festering shark, picked it up. "Ya might not wanna see this," He jabbed several fingers into the shark's underside and smiled as blood started to pour from the openings. He threw the shark into the water and waited patiently.  
"What are you doing?" Asuka asked curiously.  
"We're gonna eat shark tonight," he said, waiting patiently, "I'm gonna catch my a shark,"  
After a short moment, Ranma leapt over the side of the boat and into the water. Asuka shrieked in horror as she realized Ranma had just jumped into shark infested water. After a moment, Ranma resurfaced and slowly started swimming back toward the boat, a dead shark in tow.  
He threw the shark onto the boat.  
"We feast tonight," he said with a smile.

Ranma and Asuka ate shark that night. Whatever Ranma had done while cook, Asuka had to admit that his cooking was delicious. She never actually told him that though. While they ate, they indulged in conversation. Although Asuka had avoided the questions at first, she soon found herself answering Ranma's questions about her past, about the trauma she's been through when she was young. Perhaps it was because of Ranma's odd way of making her talk through simple reverse psychology. But she thoroughly believed it was it was proper to talk about her past because she knew so much about Ranma's.  
Ranma laid down on the boat deck and looked up at the sky, "It's nice out,"  
"I guess,"  
"You know the constellations?" he asked. "Of course I do," she said, a bit annoyed, "What do you think I am, an idiot?"  
"All right, Asuka, since you know about the constellations, perhaps you won't mind teaching this _idiot_. I only know some of the constellation. I'm interested in knowing them all,"  
Asuka, for some reason, almost regretted having made a comment like that.  
The next day, Asuka came up deck and saw Ranma stand near the edge of the boat.  
"What're you doing?" she asked.  
"Trying to develop a new technique," he responded. He had his hand extended forward over the side of the boat, his arm angled toward the water, palm toward the sky.  
Asuka watched from a nearby distance, shocked as she saw a faint blue aura enveloped Ranma's. He continued to stand there for a moment, arm still extended.  
"What kinda technique?" Asuka asked.  
"A kinda vacuum slash," he answered, not opening his eyes.  
After a moment or so, Ranma opened his eyes and quickly pulled his hand toward his body. The speed of which he retracted his hand and the ki flowing forth from it was so intense that it caused a vacuum as the air seemed as it had been sucked away. That, in turn, caused the water from the ocean to rise up several feet into the air in what seemed like a tiny yet evident tidal wave.  
"Hm, gotta practice on it some more to get it right," he said. It was no where near as powerful as he wanted it to be. But over time, it would get more and more potent. He turned toward Asuka who was staring at him as if her were some elemental magic user, "I saw someone, a guy named Ryuu, do that. Mine's a very different variation of it."  
Asuka was silent.  
Ranma said, "Um, if you're interested in martial arts, I could always teach you,"  
Two and a half weeks passed without incident.  
During that span of time, Ranma started teaching a reluctant Asuka some very basic martial arts technique. When he had allow her to harness his ki to produce a ki blast, she was shocked at the shear power one could harness. Never had she believed she could do something like that. He even showed her the power of ki's protective properties by letting a great amount flow into her, and then telling her to punch a hard object. When she struck it, her hand didn't feel any pain.  
"Of course, you're lookin' at decades of practicin' before you can harness ki effectively," Ranma taught her, which seemed to make Asuka seem very stupid when it came to this aspect of life. "It's best just to learn how to defend yourself in a fight,"  
"I only know a few moves, like the ones you've already showed me," she said confidently, "but they're effective enough to help me out of a jam,"  
Ranma nodded, "That's good. That's good. But, it never hurts to know more. You should see Shinji,"  
"Shinji? What about him?" Asuka asked.  
"As you know, I've been teaching him," he said, "And he's pretty damn good,"  
"I'll still whip his ass," she said confidently, "He's a wimp,"  
Ranma shrugged his shoulders, "I wouldn't say that. He's not as much a wimp as you make him out to be. He's just, well, passive."  
"That's what makes him a wimp," she retorted.  
"Well, I wouldn't necessarily call him a wimp anymore," he said with a smirk, "Shinji's comin' along fine. Even though you may know a bit of martial arts already, Shinji's a guy, and since he's a guy and you're a girl, he's physically stronger than you, so he can give ya a run for your money,"  
"Because he's a guy? Because I'm a girl? Why you sexist pig!"  
Ranma chuckled a bit, "All right. When we get back, how about you arm wrestle Shinji?"  
"That's so childish," she said, "I would never do something such as arm wrestling just to prove myself,"  
"Oh, you just pilot an EVA and blow up Angels?"  
Asuka was quiet after that.

As they were nearing their destination, only a week away, something happened that set them back a couple of days.  
Ranma woke up at around one in the morning when the boat listed hard toward one side, sending him flying off his bed and onto the floor. He quickly scrambled to his feet to head up deck.  
Asuka was also awoken at the same time as Ranma. It took her longer to realize what was happening before she went up deck.  
While up deck alone, Ranma found himself almost blown off the deck from the strength of the wind. The boat was in the middle of a very violent storm. The rising waves were causing the boat to list back and forth precariously.  
Ranma looked and saw one of the sails were still up, "Shit!" He quickly ran up to the front of the boat, to the crank that the sail was attached to, and proceeded to bring the sail down.  
Asuka came up several minutes later.  
Ranma saw Asuka and shouted at her, "Asuka, get the hell back down! You're gonna get blown off the damn ship!" Ranma was struck in the back when the main sail pivoted due to the ship listing toward one side. He was sent crashing into the side of the boat. He seemed to take in personal. "Sonuvabitch!"  
He got back up and was almost hit by the main sail until he ducked. Annoyed, he walked up to the main sail and picked up some rope nearby and proceeded to tie the main sail in place, to keep it from moving back and forth.  
"I've seen enough movies, and I don't plan on getting knocked off this ship by somethin' like this!" he muttered. He gave it a good jerk and was easily satisfied that the main sail didn't budge. He then walked over to the crank and proceeded to lower it.  
Asuka watched from the safety of the alcove that lead to the lower deck while Ranma did this.  
Once the sail was down, Ranma's task was done. There was no more need to worry about any of the sails getting torn. As he was about to head back toward Asuka, the boat listed toward and extreme angel, causing Ranma to lose immediate balance. Ranma, realizing that he was definitely going to go overboard and into the now freezing cold water, he reached out and grabbed a rope that he had tied to the main sail. "Ranma!" Asuka screamed out, rushing out into the pouring rain.  
When he slammed into the water, it felt to thousands of needles piercing his skin. It felt excruciating as his back was sliced open by the barnacles that had formed on the underside of the boat. He held as tightly as he could, losing his grip quickly. His hands became numb within seconds after being submerge.  
The boat was being carried by the current of the waves and Ranma found himself being dragged as currents ripped past his numbing body.  
"Fuck!" Ranma said while underwater. He realized he had just lost his grip. Figuring he was going to be swept away by the currents, Ranma was immediately stopped as a rope got tangled around one of his ankles.  
Knowing that he still had and chance, and that he was quickly running out of air, Ranma proceeded to climb up the underside of the boat. He needed to get some air.  
Asuka looked down at the rope and notice how it was being pulled tautly. She knew Ranma was somewhere under the boat, being dragged.  
She had to do something. She gripped the rope and tried to pull but it was too taut and she was too weak. Watching helplessly, not knowing what to do, Asuka peered over the side of the boat.  
Ranma broke the surface of the water and gasped for air.  
"Ranma!" she pleaded, calling out for him.  
Realizing something, Asuka quickly ran for the lower deck to grab a life preserver.  
When she came back, she saw Ranma lying in the middle of the boat deck, on his side, soaking wet, unmoving. With his last ounce of strength, Ranma had managed to pull himself out of the water and onto the deck when the boat listed hard toward his direction. Now, he was totally and utterly exhausted.  
Asuka rushed at and grabbed Ranma and slowly dragged him toward the lower deck.  
She didn't want to risk him getting washed overboard.  
Asuka shook Ranma.  
They were both on Asuka's bed.  
He didn't respond.  
When her hands touched his, he felt like ice. His skin was pale, his lips colorless.  
She swallowed the lump in her throat. She knew he was totally exhausted and suffering from extreme hypothermia. His pulse was very erratic and faint. She had to raise his temperature.  
"I-I c-can't to that!" she said to herself, trying to convince herself. "T-there's gotta be a better way!"  
She went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. Damn, she thought, the water's nowhere near as hot as it should be. There were only several blanket, but they provided little warmth.  
Knowing there was only one real way to raise his core body temperature, Asuka proceed to strip Ranma's clothes off. She kept saying it over in her mind that there was no other option. When she got his shirt off, she proceeded to remove Ranma's wet pants. After that, she threw some blankets over him.  
"God, I don't wanna do this," Asuka whined, almost disgusted with herself. But she knew she had no choice. She stripped down to her bra and panties and slipped beneath the covers. Ranma's wet boxers made her shriek from the icy coldness she felt when her leg brushed against it.  
"Shit!" she swore, knowing that unless she removed all of his clothes and all of hers, she would never be able to heat Ranma up properly.  
"I'll kill him if he does anything!" she said to herself. Without pulling the blankets up, Asuka removed Ranma's boxers, keeping her eyes closed the whole time. She even turned off the lights, just in case.  
Once she knew Ranma was naked underneath the blankets, Asuka reluctantly took her bra and panties off, swearing several times in her native languages as she did so. Ranma would owe her bigtime for this. But then again, there had been several occasions where he had saved her, even though she wouldn't admit it.  
Asuka took a deep breath. After a minute or so, she slowly slipped under to covers.  
She gasped as her body pressed against his, winced at how cold his skin was. But she had to do this. She had to help warm Ranma up or he would die.  
She pressed her body against his, her breasts pressed against his chest, her stomach against his, her legs meshed with his. She reached over and grabbed Ranma's arms, throwing them over her while she pressed her hands snuggly against Ranma's broad back. Her head rested in the crook of his neck and shoulder. The bed definitely to describe their position was a lovers embrace.  
While she was in this position, she was ever so conscious of just how close the unconscious Ranma was to her. She was so close to him, so intimately close that. She could feel his hot breath running down the back of her neck as he breathed slowly.  
She closed her eyes, praying that it won't take long.

Ranma groggily opened his eyes.  
He felt something onto of him but didn't know what. It was somewhere around five, just four hours since he had been thrown overboard.  
He couldn't see anything, the room dark and very little light coming in through the porthole. He realized that he had his arms around something warm and soft, one arm under the weight while the other was around it. He felt strands of hair brushing against his neck and shoulder. "Oh oh," he said as it slowly dawned on him on what had happened. He gave a gentle embrace and realized exactly what he was holding. He realized that he was naked and Asuka was naked too.  
He slowly sat upright, and pulled his pinned arm from underneath the sleeping and naked form Asuka, careful not to disturb her or make the blankets fall off.  
Once he was out of her bed, he stood before her, stark naked.  
"Jeez, she's gonna have a shit fit when she realizes what she did for me," he said softly. He smiled a bit, very proud of Asuka for what she had done. A month ago, she would have left him to die of hypothermia, but now, she had saved him, using her own body to warm him. He knew she hated boys and was probably disgusted at the thought of having to press her own body against somebody else's, let alone his.  
He bent down and kissed Asuka's forehead. You know what? He thought. She's not that bad afterall.

Asuka awoke at around noontime.  
When she came up deck, she saw Ranma standing in front the steering wheel, his gaze forward.  
He had been deep in thought and didn't realize Asuka was behind him until she said something.  
"Um, it's a nice day out," she said in a whisper like voice.  
Ranma was momentarily startled. He turned to face Asuka, and said, "Asuka, about what happened last night. I wanna thank you for that. I...I probably would've died back there,"  
Asuka remained silent.  
"There's just certain things that can kill me," he said, "Hypothermia happens to be one of `em. So thank you,"  
She said something that Ranma couldn't catch.  
"Excuse me?"  
"I thought you were going to die," she said, her voice almost a whisper.  
Ranma was a bit shock at how different Asuka was this morning. She was usually very outspoken person.  
He took a moment before he said, "Well, I would've if it weren't for you." He found himself a bit spooked by Asuka's sudden personality change. He didn't like it. This wasn't the Asuka that he enjoyed being around, despite her quirks.  
"Can't I ask you a question?" he asked, smiling a bit.  
Asuka looked up at him.  
"Did you take advantage of me?" he smirked a bit. He knew saying something like that would get a rise out of her. "I mean, I was unconscious and all...and naked,"  
"What?" that seemed to snap Asuka back to her usual self.  
"Did you enjoy undressing me?" he continued to smirk. "The last thing I recall before blackin' out was that I was fully dressed. The next thing I knew, I was in your bad, naked, and you were naked too,"  
"I-I did n-nothing!" she stammered.  
"How do I know? I was unconscious," he chuckled.  
"What makes you think I would wanna do something like that with you anyway?" she shouted, her hands clenching. She watched Ranma through eyes full of contempt. "You're nothing but an arrogant, obnoxious, pig-  
head, rude, insensitive asshole!"  
"Ya forgot to add good looking," he smiled.  
"You asshole! I shoulda left you to die!"  
Ranma burst out laughing, and said, "But that wouldn't've left ya with a reason to take advantage of me and strip me naked and all,"  
Asuka struck out at Ranma, enraged. She had helped save his life and this was his way of thanks! By teasing her? Ranma caught Asuka's lashing hand.  
He smiled at her.  
"Good, that's the Asuka I know,"  
"What?"  
Ranma said, "I prefer this kinda Asuka, not that meek lookin', not botherin' to make eye contact one I saw a minute ago. Ya kinda spooked me back there. It definitely wasn't the Asuka I know,"  
Asuka eyed Ranma intently. That was it? Was that why he started teasing her? To get a rise out of her? She swore inwardly because Ranma has succeeded in exactly that.  
She realized she had an idea of her own. She smiled lazily at Ranma and pouted her lips, "In case you're wondering, I did take advantage of you while you were unconscious,"  
Ranma nearly fell over. "W-what? Y-you did?"  
Asuka nodded. She could almost feel the blush flooding to her cheeks. She had to watch what she said or the images would come into her mind, making her blush, thus, making Ranma realize she had been joking.  
"Yes, I took advantage of you," she said. She smiled. For once, it was her turn to tease Ranma.  
"H-how?" Ranma said, his eyes wide, "What the hell didja do?"  
Asuka turned around and went below deck.  
"That's for me to know and you to find out,"  
Once below deck, when she realized Ranma was too shocked to follow, and that he also needed to steer the ship, she burst out laughing. She had finally gotten Ranma back.  
Ranma came below deck at around five, when Asuka had been making a lousy attempt at making burgers.  
"Whatcha makin'?" Ranma asked, ducking his head under the faucet to wash his face. He made sure he used very little water. There was little amounts left.  
"Burgers," Asuka answered. "Akane showed me how to make `em. I think I'm doing a pretty good job of it,"  
"Yeah right," Ranma muttered. He cleared his throat and reached over and turned the stove off. "If you're not busy, I'd like to talk to ya,"  
Asuka eyed Ranma suspiciously. "What? What do you want?"  
Ranma made his move. He took a step toward Asuka, pinning her against the stove and his body.  
"W-what a-are you doing?" she stuttered. Her heart started racing at a mile a minute. Her knees became shaky and she nearly had to support herself up against the stove to keep from falling.  
"I've been thinkin' about what you said earlier," Ranma said in a soft voice, his mouth close to hers. "About you taking advantage of me. Well, it turned me on,"  
Asuka's eyes widened. Oh no!  
"C'mon, let's fool around," he said, taking a nibble of her ear, doing the best he could not to burst out laughing. "I'm an adult. You will be one soon. We're out here alone with nothing much to do to pass the time. Let's make love,"  
"W-w-what? M-m-make love?" she stammered. She couldn't believe what was going on. She couldn't believe the horrible predicament she was in. Here she was, alone, on a ship with Ranma who wanted to have sex with her. She was too young for this!  
Ranma brought a hand up and curled on of Asuka's locks of hair in his hand. "I've wanted you since the first day I saw you, but I thought you wanted nothing to do with me. But, now that I found out that you took advantage of me, not only does it turn me on, but it makes me realize that the feelings for me was always there, below that shell of yours."  
He picked her up in his arms, and placed her on top of the table behind them.  
"I'm gonna take you right here and right now," he said in a deep and heavy voice.  
As Asuka stared at Ranma, her heart almost threatening to burst, her mind in a blur. After a intense moment, she realized what was going to happen unless she did something and fast. She quickly brought both hands in front of her and shoved them against his chest. When she realized she was too weak to push someone as strong as Ranma away, she brought both of her legs up and placed them on his chest, her hands backing the table, and kicked him away from her.  
"Get away from me!" Asuka shouted, finally realizing the predicament she was in and what was going to soon happen.  
"W-what's wrong?" he said in a hurt voice.  
"I-I d-didn't take advantage of you!" she quickly shouted, scurrying to the back of the table, almost falling off. "I swear! I-I was only t-  
teasing!"  
Ranma stopped his advancement.  
Asuka stared up at him for several long moments, her heart in her throat. She knew that if Ranma wanted to, he could take advantage of her and she could do nothing about it. She was physically too weak to fend him off and too inexperienced to fight back with her fists.  
After a moment, Ranma burst out laughing, tears falling from his eyes.  
Asuka looked at Ranma. "W-what's s-so funny?"  
He pointed, "That expression on your face! That's what!"  
"Huh?"  
Ranma leaned forward toward her, smirking a smirk that annoyed Asuka, "I knew you were lying about your taking advantage of me. I would've actually fallen for it if it weren't for my hearing your laughing when you went below deck. All of this was just a way of gettin' back at ya. I guess the joke's on you,"  
Asuka's eyes widened as what Ranma said registered.  
"Y-you asshole! I'll kill you!"  
Ranma didn't seem at all perturbed. He continued to smirk as he said, "Y'know, you're starting to sound a lot like Ryoga,"  
He turned around and faced the stove. He turned it on and proceeded to cook the burgers Asuka had been working on a second ago. He was extremely capricious and Asuka hated him for it.  
"So, Asuka-chan, what wouldja like on your burger?"  
Ranma and Asuka had gotten used to one another's company, the both of them sometimes fighting, usually with Asuka losing the argument in the end, but they both hadn't ripped each other's heads off. Asuka had found every night after the joke with Ranma coming on to her a sleepless night. Even though it had been nothing but a simple joke to get back at her, her mind kept wandering onto what would have happened if he hadn't been joking.  
One night, when she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep, she snuck into Ranma's room and made a pass at him, in her attempt to get back at him. Of course, he called her bluff and she found herself leaving his room feeling humiliated when she couldn't follow through with her passes.  
Every night after that, Asuka tried the best to sleep but had little or no success. After the second sleepless night, Ranma came into her bedroom, startling her.  
"W-what are you doing in here?" she shouted.  
"I came here to help put ya to sleep," Ranma muttered, exasperated. "Quit having hentai thoughts,"  
"I-I was not!"  
Ranma shrugged his shoulders, "Yeah, whatever you say. I assume you like sleeping with that pillow between your legs,"  
Asuka flustered beet red. "G-get the fuck outta my room!"  
"Quit yer bitchin' and complainin'." Ranma retorted, "I'm sick and tired of your more than usually bitchy attitude in the morning. I'm gonna press your sleep pressure points. At least you won't feel as cranky in the morning."  
Asuka just looked up at Ranma.  
"It's bad enough that ya act like it's that time of the month every day," he commented, "I don't wanna deal with a crankier version of that,"  
"H-how dare you say something like that!"  
"Blah blah," Ranma said with a wave of the hand, "I'm shitin' in my pants. We've still got a week to go and I ain't gonna stand a week of your crankiness just because you can't sleep at night because you're probably having sexual fantasies about me or Shinji or whoever."  
"I-I am not!" Asuka shouted, "Get outta my room!"  
Ranma smirked, "Then how come ya lock the door? Ya must be up to something."  
"I lock my door cause I don't want assholes like you barging into my room!" she retorted acidly. "Get the fuck out!"  
"Yeah, but first, I'm gonna hit yer pressure point," he said.  
"Get out!"  
Ranma stood up.  
"Jeez, I'm here to help you out," Ranma said, annoyed more than ever, "Dontcha remember what happened at the hotel three weeks back? Huh? You can't go to sleep so you wake me up to getcha to sleep. Well fine, have it your way. Let's see how long you can last before you start to hallucinate due to lack of sleep. Also, I'm the one with the mirror, so as soon as I believe you can't handle it anymore, we're going back home,"  
Ranma waited a moment for everything to sink in.  
In a soft voice, he said, "Now, I'm asking this nicely. Do you want me to help you go to sleep? It would do you a world of good,"  
It took about a minute before Asuka finally answered. "Fine. Go ahead,"  
The rest of the week went by in a flash. Ever since Ranma been helping her sleep, she had been a lot easier to be around since she wasn't so cranky due to lack of sleep.  
The weather had changed dramatically. It felt like sub zero temperatures this far south.  
Luckily, Ranma and Asuka were all nice and toasty in the winter wear.  
One day out from reaching Antarctica, the weather had been extremely cold.  
Asuka sighed.  
"What's wrong?" Ranma asked. He was at the wheel. Asuka was sitting in a tiny seat next to him.  
"I wonder how much colder it's going to get," she responded. Although her body was very warm, her feet were slowly going numb. She wish she had put on some thermal socks.  
"It's gonna get much colder," Ranma said, "I've been to Antarctica a couple of times when I was young. Right now, it's probably around negative two or three degrees Celsius. On a windy day, because of the wind-chill factor, it's gonna get much much colder,"  
Asuka swallowed the lump in her throat. "H-how much colder?"  
"Dunno," Ranma said, "Probably somewhere around negative thirty or so degrees Celsius. Let's just say that if your hand is exposed to that temperature for a minute or so, you're definitely gonna get frostbite,"  
He looked at Asuka. She looked like she was almost shivering.  
"Are you cold?" he asked.  
"Um, no. I'm fine,"  
Without saying a word, Ranma knelt down and grabbed one of Asuka's feet and closed his eyes. After a moment, his hands started to glow a faint red.  
"W-what are you-" she said. She didn't stop her sentence as she realized a flood of heat was flooding through her feet, warming her numb toes and foot, making its way up her leg. After a second or so, she could feel her toes again. He did the same for Asuka's other foot.  
"If you can't feel your feet," Ranma said, "Ya better watch out. They're the first body parts to go because it's so far away from the heart and is the hardest to heat,"  
"I know that!" she said, "I'm not stupid,"  
Ranma shrugged his shoulders, "All right, jus' figured I'd warn ya,"  
"H-how did you know I couldn't feel my feet?" she had to ask. "How did you know my feet were cold?"  
"I can tell,"  
Asuka had to admit that Akane was right. Ranma was extremely perceptive.  
"Well, we're here," Ranma said, taking in a deep breath. "Smell the fresh air," Ranma went below deck to grab the equipment. He emerged from below deck carrying two backpacks and a cylinder-like container and two unassembled oars.  
Dropping the items onto the boat deck, he pulled a little string that was on the container. Within moments, the container expanded into a small inflatable raft. He got onto his knees and proceeded to put the oars together.  
"What're ya standin' there for? Help out," Ranma said, gesturing to the unassembled oar. Asuka looked down at the parts. She had never done something like this before. She didn't seem to understand this and it really annoyed her.  
It didn't help that Ranma teased her about it.  
"Gee, Asuka-chan, I thought you were smarter than me, surely you can do somethin' as simple as assemble an oar." he said.  
"For you information, I am smarter than you," she said tartly, "I just never done something like this before."  
Ranma smirked, and said sarcastically, "Surely being book smart is very helpful in a situation like this. All right, I have somethin' for ya. I assume you know Darwin's theory of evolution, ne?"  
"Yeah," she said, "in Layman's terms, it means only the strong survive,"  
"Very good," Ranma said seriously, "In case you're wondering, in this environment, that's gonna hold so true. Here's where the stuff ya learn in school has real world meaning. School teaches you theory. Real life teaches you application."  
"And what's that? The Saotome Theory of sounding intelligent?" she asked sarcastically.  
Ranma smirked.  
"From what I see, you're still fumbling with puttin' the oar together. All right," Ranma said, "Now, exactly where did the Second Impact take place?"  
"About a hundred miles north of the middle of Antarctica," she said.  
Ranma laughed.  
"What's so funny?"  
"Asuka, in case you're wondering, we're gonna be on the south pole. That means that in any direction from the center of this continent," he said, "is north,"  
Asuka's face froze. Oh my god, she thought. That's true. She must have sounded like a totally idiot.  
"Y'know what that means?" Ranma said with a shrug of his shoulder, "It means we're gonna be on a freezing cold continent with no idea where this Second Impact is gonna take place. Um, what did Misato say?"  
"What do you mean? About what?"  
"She mentioned about how there was a Katsuragi Expedition and that she in it when she was young," he said, "Perhaps we could hitch a ride with them...provided we find `em in time,"  
Asuka's eyes widened. Why didn't she think of that?  
"That sounds like the best idea." She said, reluctant to admitting it. "I'll be right back," he said. He went below deck for a short moment. While he was away, Asuka peered over toward the oar that Ranma had put together.  
"Oh, I get it," she realizes that she had been trying to put the oar on all wrong. It took her only a moment to get it right and put the oar together. By the time she was finished, Ranma emerged from below deck carrying a huge oil barrel.  
"What's that for?" Asuka asked. She had noticed that before in Ranma's room but never asked about it.  
"I bought this on the night I picked this ship up," he said, gesturing to the oil drum with the wide open top. "You would've seen me buying it if it weren't for the fact that you fell asleep about five miles away from the dock and I had to carry you the rest of the way,"  
"Hey, we were walking for over thirteen hours," Asuka snapped back, "Of course I was tired. I've never hiked for that long. And it didn't help that we only stopped to eat once,"  
Ranma ignored her. He carried the oil drum over to the side of the boat. Wrapping one of his legs around a nearby beam for balance, and leaned over, scooping up a massive quantity of water into the oil barrel. He then placed the filled barrel on the deck, and said, "Don't worry about it for now. You'll really appreciate what I'm doing just a few short hours from now. I'm just putting water in it because the barrel's too light as it is so it won't go far if I throw it," He gave a warm smile that seemed to warm Asuka up more than the winter jacket.  
He picked the barrel back up with both arms, and simply threw it into the sky.  
Asuka watched in amazement as the barrel soared through the air and disappeared as it got too far away for her to see. The barrel must have weighed a few hundred pounds yet Ranma threw it like it was nothing. What was more amazing was that he managed to throw it as far as he did. It must landed at least five or six miles away.  
Ranma gritted his teeth. He walked over to the side of the boat and placed his right hand on the siding. Holding it tight, he wrenched his arm and yelped out in pain as a loud crack could be heard coming from his body.  
"W-what are you doing?"  
Ranma started moving his right arm in a fashion as it testing it out if it worked. "I dislocated my shoulder throwing that damn barrel. Remember the Priss, Sylia, Nene, and Linna? Remember how I mentioned that I fought against them? When I was fighting them, Sylia dislocated my shoulder. And ever since then, it would pop out every here and there"  
"I'm sorry to hear that," Asuka said, sincere for a change. Ranma smiled, "Don't worry about it. It feels more like an annoying pinch than excruciating pain,"  
Ranma and Asuka arrived on the giant continent just as the sun was about to set. They were each carrying their own backpack. Asuka seemed to be straining to carry all that weight while Ranma seemed oblivious to the burden. "Are you cold?" Ranma asked Asuka, turning his attention on her. "Is that backpack to heavy for you?"  
Asuka was cold and the backpack was way too heavy. She wished she had gotten a warmer winter jacket and hadn't offered to carry as much as she did. She knew Ranma was having fun seeing her suffer and she hated him for it. But she wasn't going to let him know that.  
"No, I'm fine," she said, the biting winds freezing her delicate face. She readjusted her backpack for the tenth time since she arrived on land.  
Ranma took of his backpack and placed it on the ground. He walked over to Asuka and took it off for her. She watched him as he opened her backpack up, took out dozen of the heavier items, and then walked over to his own and placing them in his.  
"You're backpack should be a lot lighter now," he said, casually throwing backpack back on his shoulders with no effort. Asuka stared at Ranma. How did he know that the backpack was too heavy for her. Was he that perceptive?  
"C'mon," Ranma said, shielding his eyes from the biting winds, "We still a few more hours of light left. We should walk for about an hour or so and then set up camp, all right?"  
Asuka nodded. She picked up her things and threw it around her shoulders. Although it was still a bit heavy, it felt like it was a ton lighter. She didn't even feel any pressure on her spine from the weight like she did last time. Since Ranma had done that, it would make her walk a whole lot easier and more comfortable.  
Asuka had to admit. Sometimes she was wrong about Ranma.  
"Thanks, Ranma," she muttered silently to herself as she quickly ran ahead to catch up to him.  
Together, the two headed further into the continent.

"We set up tent here," Ranma said with a smile. He had his hand on ice covered object protruding from the ground.  
"Isn't this the oil barrel you threw back there while we were on the boat?" she asked. She couldn't believe the barrel had landed so far away from the boat. Her estimation of it going five or six miles was way off.  
Ranma nodded, "Yep, this is the barrel. And this is where we'll set up camp."  
"What's the gonna be used for?"  
"Nothing right now," came his reply, "We're gonna use this in the morning,"  
Asuka shrugged her shoulders. She had no idea what the barrel was for and she didn't want to know.  
They proceed to make camp.  
Ranma was actually whistling a happy tune as he was pitching his tent. That seemed to bother Asuka even more than the biting winds and extreme cold, even though they did come in a close second.  
"How the hell can you whistle in weather like that?" she shouted, wanting to throttle him.  
Ranma continued to work on his tent as he said, "Easy. I bring my lips like this and blow."  
"You know damn well what I mean!"  
"What? Is it bothering you? Or is it brothering you that I'm not at all bothered by this weather?" he said with a grin.  
"Both!"  
Ranma shrugged his shoulders, "Get used to it. It's gonna take a lot more than extremely cold weather to bother me. Also, even though you might not believe me, I'm actually sweating under these damn clothes. It feels like a sauna in here. It all has to do with ki. You need any help over there with your tent? You don't look like you're doing okay back there,"  
Asuka gritted her teeth. Of course she wasn't doing okay! She had never pitched a tent before! And here she was, in below freezing temperature, her fingertips starting to feel numb, as she tried to hammer a spike into the solid ice that represented the ground.  
Ranma, finished pitching his tent, threw his backpack into the tent so it won't go flying off, just in case, and then walked over to Asuka.  
"Here, give me that," he muttered, taking the hammer, "Baka,"  
"I heard that!" she shouted above the deafening winds. Deep down inside, she was eternally grateful for what Ranma was doing. Although she hated herself for not being competent in pitching a tent, she was slowly growing used to Ranma helping her out. It didn't seem to bother her as much as if someone else was helping her out.  
"Go use my tent," he said, "I'll use this one. Go get some sleep,"  
Annoyed with effectiveness of the hammer, Ranma handed it to Asuka right before she and proceed to drive the spikes into the ground with an open palm strike. After a minute or so, the tent was up.  
He quickly threw Asuka's backpack into the tent and went in. Inside the tent, Ranma unzipped his heavy jacket and threw it off.  
"Goddamnit I'm hot!"  
Asuka was having trouble sleeping. What Ranma had said to her during their hike had scared the hell out of her.  
"I can't press your pressure point because it would knock ya out," he had said in a serious voice, "Since we gotta worry about polar bears, it's best that we be somewhat alert. I wouldn't wanna have it where I spot a polar bear and try and wake you up only to realize you'll probably remain asleep for another few more hours." Ranma was having fun. He wondered if Asuka was smart enough to realize that polar bears inhabitant the North Pole, not the South Pole.  
Asuka looked up at the lining of her tent. The violent winds as they slammed against the thin fabric of the tent Ranma put up made an eerie rustling noise.  
She closed her eyes, praying for sleep to bestow her.

Asuka was awaken at around five in the morning.  
"W-what? Where am I?" she said groggily as she sat upright, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She had actually managed to fall asleep.  
She heard Ranma's voice from outside the tent, "Wake up, sleepyhead. We've got another day of hikin' ahead of us,"  
She mumbled something incoherent and felt back onto her sleeping bag. Her body ached for yesterdays hike. Her muscles were soar. Her fingers and feet felt numb. She felt miserable and was in need of a soothing bath. Or perhaps a shower. She wished she hadn't used the water on the boat so wastefully because it had run out of water a few days before they reached Antarctica.  
"What time is it?" she asked, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.  
"Five ten," came the reply. The zipper to the tent slid down and Ranma peeked his head in, "We should get ready to leave in a little while." When he noticed Asuka was still in her heavy jacket, "Jeez, you slept in that?"  
"Yeah, it's cold, y'know," came her wry reply.  
"It's not that cold out," Ranma said. "C'mon out. Check it out. It's pretty nice out,"  
It took Asuka about ten minutes before she mustered enough courage to face the cold world just outside the tent.  
She was pretty surprised to notice that the weather was somewhat tolerable, albeit cold.  
"That's because there's no wind," Ranma said, almost reading Asuka's mind.  
Ranma jerked a thumb toward the barrel with steam rising out the open top. "I made your bath for you. You can take a bath while I pack everything up."  
"W-what? W-when did you do that?" she asked. Now she finally knew what Ranma wanted that thing for. He had been smart enough to think far ahead.  
"I did it ten minutes ago." he said with a grin, "I stuffed the barrel until it was jam packed with snow, stuck my hand in it, and warmed the whole thing up until the snow melted. And then poof, instant warm bath. What do ya think? Pretty slick, ne?"  
Asuka was silent. That warm bath looked so inviting. But she realized something. She was going to have to be naked in there because if she wore any clothing, it would most likely freeze or annoy her for the rest of the trek under that jacket.  
Ranma's eyes creased, "What's wrong?"  
"You know what's wrong. I can't take a bath in front of you,"  
Ranma sighed, "Oh, this again. You don't want me seeing you naked. Look, there's a nice warm bath waiting for you. I'm pretty sure you would really wanna take one, what with you wasting all the water on the boat and all and us not being able to shower for the past few days, but I'll be damn if I have to sit in the tent waiting for you to take a bath. I ain't doing that. Get over it. If you don't wanna take one because of you sense of modesty, then I might as well dump the barrel then. Well? What is it going to be?"  
Asuka said quickly, "Of course I want to take a bath."  
"Well, enjoy then." He said, "Get a load of your chest. I'll take my time packing."  
"Fine, but turn around," Asuka said, glaring at him.  
Ranma shook his head, "And what if I don't wanna?" When Asuka bit her lip, he knew his teasing was going to far. She really wanted to take that bath. "All right, I'll turn around for a minute."  
When he turned around, she took of her jacket, but immediately realized something else. There was no step in front of the barrel in order for her to climb in. There was no way she would be able to climb over the top of the barrel.  
Ranma said, "You in yet?"  
"No! I can't get in," she replied. She almost felt like crying. She was just inches away from pure heaven yet she couldn't get into the barrel." He turned back around to face her. "Huh? Oh, I get it. You need some kinda step or something." He looked around for a moment. There was nothing that she would be able to use as a step. "Hm, this kinda bring up a problem for you, ne?" He shrugged his shoulders, "Asuka, just get outta your clothes, I'll help you in."  
"B-but!"  
Ranma gritted his teeth, "Goddamnit! Who cares if I see you naked? Do you wanna take a bath or no?"  
"Yes, of course I want to take a bath!" snapped back. She lowered her voice because she realized Ranma could simply dump the hot water away and she could do nothing about it. "Yes. I do,"  
"All right," Ranma said, "Then take off your clothes. I'll boost you in. I don't know what you're so scared about. It's not like I haven't seen a girl naked before. Heck, there was this one girl that kept jumping into my bathtub every time I took a bath. Asuka stared at Ranma for a moment. What did she have to be scared about? Nothing. Besides, she had a body females twice her age would envy.  
"Well?" he asked, his hands on his hips.  
Doing away with modesty, Asuka took of her clothes. Ranma intertwined his fingers and let her put her foot in there. She then stepped up and into the warm inviting water. When her entire body submerged under the water, it felt like pure heaven. She could immediately feel all her worries and tensions flowing out of her body, replaced with relaxation.  
"There, that was easy, wasn't it?" Ranma said with a grin. "Think of what you would have missed if you had decided not to get in because you decided to actually be modest...which would be quite ironic. I mean, afterall, I don't think there's a modest bone in your body,"  
"What the hell did you say?"  
Ranma shook his head, "Forget it. I'm not in the mood for an argument. It's too early. I'll argue with you when we're busy walking,"  
He walked over to the tent he had stayed in last night and said, "Hey, Asuka, check this out,"  
"What?"  
Ranma held his right arm out for a second, angling it toward one of the spikes that held the tent in place. After a moment, he quickly jerked his hand back, the spike pulled right out of the ground by some kind of invisible force, flying right into this waiting hand. He turned toward Asuka, a smile on his face.  
"How did you just do that?"  
Ranma smirked, "Remember what I was trying before on the boat a while back, where I caused that tiny tidal wave? Well, I woke up an hour ago and practiced it. I got much much better at it." He smiled, satisfied with himself.  
"Watch this," he said. He brought his hand up across his chest and then quickly made a wide slashing mark, like he was wielding a sword. A second later, the snow that had settled on the ground flew up into the air, defying gravity. For a short moment, enough snow had been disturbed that the area in front of him was covered in a wall of snow.  
"It'll come in helpful sooner or later," Ranma said. "It's kinda like a smoke screen except it's snow,"  
Ranma proceeded to pack everything back up. Already done with his tent, he proceeded to pack up Asuka's. As he did this, the two of them indulged in some chit chat, talking friendly to one another for a change, no argument rising from either of them.  
Before Asuka was finished, Ranma walked over to the barrel and looked down at the water.  
"What are you doing, you pervert!"  
"God, Asuka, you're so damn paranoid!" Ranma said in exasperation "I just wanted to see if the water's still warm. You've been in there for a while already," Without even asking if he could do so, he dipped his hand into the water. Asuka gasped as she quickly scooted toward one side of the barrel. "Well, the water's starting to get cold. I'll warm it up."  
He closed his eyes for a moment and started glowing. As Asuka watched him, she could feel the cooling water heating back up again to a desirable temperature. "Is that better?"  
"M-much,"  
Ranma walked back away and proceeded to pack everything back up.  
Asuka sat down on the ground and stared at the fire in front of her that she saw Ranma make while she had been soaking in the warm bath. She had watched as Ranma sat down near the fire, and pull out a tiny portable stove, and then proceeded to make a meal from the stash of food in his backpack.  
When Asuka was finished with her bath, Ranma helped her out. She was in too much a relaxed state of mind to feel at all tense from Ranma helping her back out of the barrel.  
"Where did that come from? she asked/.  
"From my backpack. Jeez. Didn't you just see me reach into my backpack a second ago?" he said, "Anyway, your food's in the pot. It's not much, but hearty soup'll do,"  
Asuka looked into the pot and saw the bubbling soup.  
"It looks disgusting," she commented. It looked like something that would come up from the stomach, not down into it.  
Ranma walked over to his backpack and took out a spoon. He walked over to the pot and started eating from it, "All right, more for me."  
Asuka quickly said, "W-what are you doing?"  
"I'm not letting this go to waste," he said, "You don't want it,"  
"I never said that," she said, "I commented that it looks disgusting"  
"So you want it?" he said. He handed Asuka the pot and the spoon.  
Asuka looked at the pot of food.  
Taking a deep breath, expecting the worst, she picked up the spoon and tasted the stew. "I-it's d-delicious," she said, her eyes widening. She couldn't believe something that look so disgusting could taste so good.  
Ranma smiled, "Why thank you. I'll take that as a compliment."  
"You made this?"  
"No, picked it up at the gourmet restaurant just around the corner," he replied wryly.  
"Ha ha, real funny," she sneered, taking several more spoonfuls of the stew.  
"Well, hurry up, we've got a long trek ahead of us," he said. "I'm gonna go take my bath now,"  
"W-what?" she gasped, almost spitting out her food.  
Ranma took of his jacket and proceeded to take of his shirt, "I thought ya heard me. I'm gonna take a soak now. Keep in mind I haven't taken a bath longer than you. I could sure use one right now." While shirtless, he walked over to the barrel and looked in, "Jeez, spill out a little more water why dontcha?" Before Asuka had a chance to say something, Ranma proceed to scoop snow up in this hands and dumping it into the barrel. He did this for several minutes. After that, he reached his hand in.  
"Ah, just perfect," he said satisfyingly. He took off the rest of his clothes, not even caring if Asuka was watching him or not, and hopped into the barrel, sighing in relief. "God, that feels good,"  
He turned his attention toward Asuka and noticed she was just looking at him, "What?"  
Asuka blushed and quickly turned her back toward him.

"Showoff," Asuka actually muttered as she walked along side Ranma.  
As they both headed further inland, Ranma was continuously practicing his technique. It was growing stronger with ever passing minute. In just a few short hours, Ranma had managed to incorporate both hands into the technique. Shortly after that, Ranma soon realized that he only needed to flick his wrists and not his whole arm.  
The technique seemed to resort quite a bit to the use of wind, like the Hiryu Shoten Ha.  
Ranma laughed, "Ha, kinda funny comin' from someone like you,"  
"And what is that supposed to mean?"  
"Ya want me to list it out?" he said teasingly. He changed the subject, "I wonder what I should call this technique,"  
"How about the Arrogant Slash?" she said with a wry grin. "Or the Macho Blast?"  
"I have one. How about the Hentai Skirt Lifter Upper?" he said. He turned toward Asuka and flicked his wrist toward her. A small but harmless mini blast of wind struck Asuka from below. He smiled teasingly, and said, "Now, if you were wearin' a dress, I would have gotten good peek at those blue panties of yours,"  
"You pervert!"

"We only have, what, three more days left until the Second Impact, and we still haven't found the damn expedition team," Asuka commented with a sigh. She and Ranma were prepping their tents up. It was around ten, the both of them having actually gone for a few hours after sun down. At around nine, the winds had picked up, dropping the temperature quickly, causing them to finally have to stop.  
"Don't worry," Ranma said. "We're bound to find `em. Hey, you need help again?"  
"No! I've got it!" Asuka shouted out over the winds. She didn't want to see Ranma's arrogant smirk that he gave her every time he helped her out. Besides, she could do this all on her own.  
"Are you sure?" Ranma asked again. He had already put his tent up.  
"I'm sure! Go to sleep! I don't need your help! It's not like incompetent at this!" she responded.  
Ranma smiled, not smirked. He had to give Asuka his respect that she was willing to put up with the harsh weather to prove that she didn't need him. He stood there and watched her.  
Asuka could feel Ranma's gaze on her. She hated that. He was assessing her. She didn't mind him assessing her once she got used to this, but not now, not when she was still inexperienced at putting up a tent.  
She turned toward Ranma and said, "You don't have to watch me! It's not like I'm going to mess things up! I understand how to do this!"  
She turned back toward the tent, just in time to see her tent get whisked away in a violent gush of wind. She watch, humiliated as the tent flew off into the far off distance in a matter of seconds, disappearing beyond the darkness.  
She heard Ranma mutter something.  
"Well that just sucks,"

Asuka and Ranma were sharing his tent. It was a tight squeeze. It didn't help one bit that they were actually sharing one sleeping bag. Asuka's sleeping bag had been dragged off along with the tent. Luckily, she still had her backpack.  
Ranma didn't care that Asuka and him would be sharing his tent, nor his sleeping bag. It bothered Asuka much much more. Why? Because Ranma was going to go to sleep in nothing but his boxers. The jacket was too hot for him. And to compound the tension and awkwardness of the situation, Ranma wanted Asuka to remove the jacket too.  
"Put your jacket back on!" Asuka shouted at him.  
Ranma said, "Yeah right! Take your damn jacket off! The ice on it is freezing the hell outta me!"  
"No! You put your jacket back on!" Asuka shouted back.  
"Goddamnit!" Ranma swore. He sat upright and grabbed Asuka, throttling her for a second. With on hand on her collar, he unbuttoned the buttons and pulled the zipper down. Against her protest, Ranma pulled Asuka's heavy jacket off and threw it into the corner of the tent. "If ya don't like it, go sleep outside. It's your fault you didn't hammer the spikes in far enough." After that, he laid back down and turned onto his side, his back toward her, and promptly went to sleep.  
"You asshole!" Asuka shouted. She got up and out of the sleeping bag and went to the corner. She picked up her jacket and put it on. "It's freezing in this damn tent! And you want me to take off my jacket? You're some kinda psycho!"  
"Yeah, but this is my tent, my sleeping bag," Ranma said, "Heck, the tent and sleeping bag that you let get blown away is also mine. Anyway, if you're gonna sleep in this tent, those are the rules. If ya don't like it, sleep outside,"  
"Fine!" she said. She left the tent. She stood out there for several minutes before she finally realized that she was stupid for thinking she could sleep under these conditions.  
She entered the tent.  
"You're an asshole!"  
Ranma sat upright. "Will you please shut up? I'm trying to sleep,"  
It too Asuka several long minute before she took off her jacket. She stood there, looking down at Ranma. She soon started to shiver. She had to slip into the sleeping bag. Reluctantly, she did just that.  
"Dontcha do anything funny," Ranma muttered. "I'm a light sleeper,"

Asuka opened her eyes. She felt this incredibly warm sensation surrounding her. When her mind was able to take in her surroundings, she soon realized that she was in Ranma's sleeping bag and that one of her arms were wrapped around him, her head nuzzled against the crook of his neck and shoulder.  
"Ranma, wake up!" She said as she slapped Ranma hard in the cheek. That seemed to have awoken him quite fast.  
"W-what? What's wrong?" he said, sitting upright, still slightly dazed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.  
Asuka almost gasped. She had never really seen Ranma in this state of mind before. That slight grogginess, the mussed hair, the slight growth under his chin made him look incredibly sexy. Since he wasn't wearing a shirt, she knew his bare chest just inches away from her face.  
"You've slept enough," she quickly said.  
Ranma yawned, "Jeez, what do you want me to do?"  
"You can get up," she said.  
He looked at her for a short moment and then smiled, "You're outta your mind, Asuka. I ain't gettin' up for another hour or so. We've gotta get as much rest as possible. We still go a long walk ahead of us," He then laid back down, right next to Asuka and closed his eyes. "I suggest you get some rest, too or you're gonna be dead tired before the day ends,"  
"I-I can't, not with you in this sleeping bag!" she said.  
"You didn't seem to have problems going to sleep before," he said, his eyes still closed. "Heck, you were the one who even nuzzled up against me,"  
"I did not!" she said. When she noticed that a large amount of the sleeping bag was by her side, she said, "Well, perhaps I was cold. It wouldn't've been cold if you didn't make me take of my jacket!"  
"Goto sleep, Asuka,"  
With that said, Ranma went to asleep.  
"Baka,"

"Hey, do you see those light?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yeah,"  
It was nearing nighttime. The morning and afternoon had gone by without. With only two days left until the inevitable Second Impact, Ranma and Asuka finally got lucky.  
"How far ahead do you think they are?" Asuka asked.  
"Dunno, probably around ten or so miles," he said.  
Asuka mumbled something in German.  
"You just said `Shit' in German," Ranma said.  
She nodded, "Yes, I did. How did you know?"  
"You said the same word about a month ago, on the first day we were on the boat," he said, "You told me what it meant when I asked you about it. I remembered it? You said that when I told you we were gonna be stuck on a private boat together."  
She looked at him curiously. It was pretty amazing that Ranma remembered the word and the day she had said it. "Yeah, I remember that." She smirked, "I'm impressed. A person of your age should be experiencing memory gaps at around this age,"  
Ranma laughed.  
"C'mon, let's pretend we're dead," he said, continuing on.  
"Make like we're dead? What the hell does that mean?"  
"We head for the light," he answered.  
"That's gotta be the lamest attempt at humor I've ever heard," she muttered under her breath, suppressing the urge to giggle.  
"Anyway, just keep on heading toward the light," Ranma said, "Sooner or later, they're bound to stop and make camp. We would be able to catch up when they do, and then we'll hitch a ride with `em from here on to the original location of the Second Impact,"  
"I hope they stop soon," Asuka said. "My feet's killing me"  
"You complain' too much," he commented.  
"And what's that supposed to mean?"  
"For a smart girl, you sure ask that question a lot," he said with a smirk, "I mean, what part do ya not understand? `You', I'm referring to the only person aside from myself, which would be the person I'm directing this comment toward, which is, oh my god, you. Duh. `Complain', another way of saying nag or the figurative meaning of bitch. `Too much' means in excess of. Which ones do ya not understand?"  
Asuka told Ranma to go self-procreate.  
Ranma laughed. "It would be more fun with you,"  
Asuka blushed beet red.  
Ranma laughed again.  
"You're so easy to tease, Asuka-chan,"  
Asuka mumbled something in German.  
"Yeah, well frankfurter and sauerkraut to you," he retorted.  
For some reason, Asuka could not prevent herself from laughing.

It was around midnight when Ranma noticed Asuka was becoming physically weak and unable to walk.  
He noticed on several occasions he had to stop for her to catch up.  
Ever since they had seen those lights, they had been following since. Unfortunately, it seems the expedition had no plans of stopping yet. Ranma and Asuka must had walked about fifteen miles already, and they seemed no where closer to the group yet.  
"I'm so tired," Asuka said, stopping dead in her tracks. She had been walking for way too long as it is. Walking all day, and then some, was not her usual cup of tea. She would rather do something else.  
Ranma was about to tease Asuka but decided against it. He walked back to where Asuka had stopped. She looked up at him wearily. She had already gone several hours beyond her threshold. Through shear willpower, she had trekked an additional seven or so miles. Even though she had a much little load to carry, what with her no longer having a tent and sleeping bag to carry, she could still push no more.  
"Well, I'm proud that ya got as far as ya did," he commented. He took her backpack off. She didn't even protest. She wanted to just go to sleep right then and there. Forget waiting for Ranma to pitch a tent.  
He picked up the heavy backpack with his left hand. With knelt down in front of Asuka and picked her up with his right.  
"What are you doing?" she asked, snapping awake for a moment.  
"What the hell do you think? I'm gonna carry you. Jeez, you ask a lotta question," Ranma muttered. He picked her up in the same fashion as a groom would his bride.  
With the backpack securely in one hand, and Asuka in his arms, Ranma broke out in the sprint for the light.  
Despite the jostling from Ranma sprinting, Asuka never woke. She fell asleep just seconds after she was whisked off her feet. It took Ranma close to and hour of running before he finally got close enough to the still moving group for them to hear him.  
"Hey," Ranma called out to the slow moving truck at the back of what looked like a convoy. When they didn't stop, Ranma ran further ahead and cut in front of the truck, causing the trucker to stop.  
"W-where'd the hell you come from?" the driver asked, his head popping out the window.  
"This, um, my, um, niece here needs some medical help," Ranma quickly said. "Hold on one minute," the guy said. He pulled his head back into the truck and Ranma saw him speak into the CB through the windshield. A moment later, the still moving trucks ahead of them stopped. Ranma took his chance to wake Asuka while there was time.  
"Asuka," Ranma said, giving her a shake.  
"H-huh? W-what is it?"  
"I made it to the expedition group," Ranma said, "I lied to `em and told you were my niece and needed medical attention. Play along."  
Asuka, too tired, nodded and went back to sleep, nuzzling her face into Ranma's warm neck.  
"Asuka, wake the hell up!" Ranma said, exasperated. "This is important. You've gotta play the role or they're gonna get suspicious,"  
"O-okay, fine. I'm your niece. I'll do that. Lettme sleep,"  
Ranma sighed. Kids.

A young Misato looked out the back window of mobile unit. Actually, it was much more like a mobile house. It provided sleeping quarters for the workers and a research facility on near the front of the unit. This mobile unit was so large it required a tank-like tractor to pull it. And since the tractor was to slow, that was why Ranma had managed to actually catch up. "What do ya thinks going on back there?" she asked curiously. She had trouble sleeping, despite her young age.  
"Just two passerbys. You can go back to sleep," her father, Katsuragi-  
san, said. He then went back to his work. He was sitting in a chair, in front of a portable computer, staring at the screen.  
The CB radio next to him came to life.  
"Katsuragi-san, the girl seems to be in a state of shear exhaustion and needs a place to rest," a scratchy voice came through. "What should we do?"  
The man said, "Bring them to me." Although he didn't want to be disturbed, he didn't want to seem like a cold and heartless man in front of his daughter. Besides, he had a soft spot for children.  
After a brief period of time, there was a knock at the door.  
"Enter,"  
Ranma, still carrying Asuka, entered the mobile unit.  
"T-thank you, sir," Ranma said in a very grateful tone, bowing several times, acting nervous. He looked at the man for a moment, assessing him. "What seems to be the problem?"  
Ranma looked down at Asuka, "My niece here is in a state of extreme exhaustion and needs some rest, that's all."  
The man eyed the young girl. She looks the same age as Misato, he thought to himself. It would be nice for Misato to have someone to play with but this mission is too important. He would allow them to stay for a day or so before he allow them on their way.  
"There's a small outpost about fifty miles from here," he said, "You can stay until then. After that, we'll drop you off,"  
"That's fine," Ranma said, "Whatever it is you can offer us, it is much better off that that blasted cold outside,"  
"There's a free sleeping quarters in back," the man said, "It's the fifth door on your right, um..."  
Ranma smiled warmly, and figured it was best to lie "My name's Adam. Adam Angel Nerv. This my niece, Lilt,"  
"Lilt," Misato-san commented. "That's a nice name. Adam and Lilt. Hm, did you know that that has a biblical theme to it?"  
Ranma nodded, "Yes. I plan on naming my child Angel. That way, it wouldn't matter if he or she is male or female. It's either that or Evangelion,"  
The two adults laughed. Katsuragi-san gestured toward Misato who was cautious standing in corner of the room, "This is my daughter,"  
Ranma, recognizing the littler girl said, "Hello, Misa...missy,"  
"Her name's Misato," he said.  
"Hello, Misato," Ranma said, grateful that he hadn't screwed things up. "Hey, you and Lilt here are the same age. Perhaps you can play together until we hafta split,"  
Misato smiled, "That would be nice,"  
"Well, Adam, enjoy your stay." Katsuragi-san said. "We'll pass the outpost in about thirty or so hours. If Lilt is well enough tomorrow, they could enjoy each other's company,"  
Ranma nodded. "Thanks for your hospitality. I really appreciate it. You have no idea how much help you mean to us,"  
Ranma carried Asuka to the appointed room that Katsuragi had indicated. Once inside, Ranma almost burst out laughing.  
That meeting had been funny. Asuka awoke in an unknown setting.  
She realized that she was in a bed. Looking around, she noticed that she was in a tiny bedroom and on the top bed of a bunk bed. Ranma was sitting in a chair adjacent to the bed, gazing out the tiny window toward the huge stretch of nothing but white.  
"Nice of you to wake up, sleeping beauty," Ranma said with a smirk.  
"How long did I sleep?"  
"About twelve hours," Ranma answered, "It's about one now,"  
"Where are we?"  
Ranma looked back out the window, "Well, to recap what happened. Remember those lights? Well, after you were too tired, I carried you and ran till I hit those lights. It turned out to be some kinda convoy. I told `em you were my niece and that you totally exhausted. We were led into this really big building on wheels, where I met Misato's father and Misato, the younger version of herself."  
Asuka's eyes widened "Really? Then that means we're on the Katsuragi Expedition team that Misato had mentioned about,"  
"Bingo," Ranma said, "After meeting them, I was told that we would be let off at a nearby outpost, which is about...twenty or so hours away. And one more thing, when I was asked for my name, I decided to have some fun and tell `em that my name's Adam and your name's Lilt. Kinda funny, ne?"  
Asuka said, "Not really. Anyway, what are we gonna do?"  
"What else, stay here," Ranma said, "From what I remember, this team has something to do with the Second Impact. All we do is destroy this convoy as soon as we near the outpost. Afterall, we don't want the people to be stuck out in middle of nowhere,"  
"Destroying this convoy might be bad," Asuka said.  
"Oh?"  
"From what Misato told me, Adam will arrive at the given time," she responded. "Adam and this convoy are the direct cause of the Second Impact. If this convoy never did what it was set out to do, then something worse could have happened. Keep in mind that there are no EVAs around to stop him, only this convoy. It just so happen that when this convoy stopped him, it caused the Second Impact,"  
Ranma shrugged his shoulders, "Well, how about we steal this unit, go to the location Adam where arrives, and kill him ourselves. I mean, isn't it said that him being shrunk to an embryo is what causes the Second Impact? Well, instead of shrinking it, we kill it. Waitaminute, we can't do that." Ranma thought about it for a moment before he continued on, "Adam is some kinda messenger that was sent here to warn humanity about the upcoming Angels. If we kill him, then humanity will never get the message. But if we don't stop him, what will happen?"  
"He'll probably destroy mankind,"  
"Bah, that's great," Ranma muttered, "We're kinda in a lose-lose situation here, y'know,"  
Asuka didn't say anything. She simply stopped to think.  
Ranma said, "How about this? We stop Adam, and deliver the messages ourselves? Of course, we'll be stuck here for longer than anticipated," He sighed, "And after a month already, I'm kinda lookin' forward to getting back,"  
"The best plan so far seems to stop Adam," Asuka said, "And then somehow deliver the message ourselves."  
"Yeah, but how do we go about implementing this plan?" Ranma asked.  
"Well, we steal this house on wheels as you call it, since something on this convoy must detect Adam's arrival, this thing being most likely, but also tell Katsuragi-san and Misato exactly why we're doing this. We could even tell them of an exact date of when the first Angel attack will be,"  
Ranma sighed, "Man, you know what woulda probably have been easier, if we stopped Adam from having to come in the first place,"  
"No one really knows why he came. They just know when he did," Asuka said.  
"So I guess this is the plan, we steal this unit. Tell Katsuragi about the inevitable, find Adam, and kill him," Ranma said.  
"Yep,"  
Ranma smirked, "Think, Asuka, has it ever occurred to you about all this stuff we're doing? I mean, this is definitely not one easy task,"  
"But it's not impossible either," she added.  
Ranma shrugged his shoulders and said, "All right. We'll execute this plan as soon as we see the outpost,"  
"Right,"  
Misato, whom had been standing just outside Ranma and Asuka's door, waiting for Asuka to wake up and perhaps play with her, had heard the entire conversation.  
She ran off to tell her father.

"Why did we stop?" Ranma shrugged his shoulders, "I dunno. Perhaps eat or something,"  
There was a knock at their door. It was Katsuragi-san's voice.  
"Adam, Lilt, may I please come in?"  
"Sure," Ranma said.  
The door opened. Katsuragi-san entered leaned against the doorjamb. He noticed Asuka was awake, "Ah, Lilt, it's nice you see you're okay now. I guess all you needed was a little sleep," Asuka pretended to smile warmly, "Yes. Thank you very much for taking us in," So this is Misato-san's father, huh? She thought. I wonder where Misato is or how she looks like.  
Katsuragi-san turned toward Ranma, "Adam, it's a nice day out and we stopped to have lunch. Would you and Lilt like to join us?"  
Ranma looked at Asuka and then back at Katsuragi, "Sure. We haven't eaten yet."  
"All right. Follow me,"  
Together, Ranma and Asuka put on their jackets and followed him outside.  
Once outside, the three of them walked several yards away from the mobile unit before Ranma realized something. But it was too late.  
Katsuragi turned around and pulled gun on them.  
"Who the hell are you?" he said, his gun aimed at Ranma's chest. Asuka gasped. She turned around and saw three guys emerge from the mobile unit, each of them aiming a gun toward them. Slowly, they made a semi circle around the two of them.  
Katsuragi-san eyed Ranma critically, "Who are you? Where did you come from? Why are you here?"  
"My real name's Nerv," Ranma said, "I work for Eva corporation. I can't tell you why we're here,"  
Katsuragi-san eyed Ranma, "I don't think you have a choice,"  
Ranma sighed, giving up, "My corporation has found out that there's a massive reading of energy somewhere around his area. They believe its of alien origin. We are here to retrieve it,"  
"I've never heard of your corporation," the man said, "I don't believe you,"  
Ranma shrugged his shoulder as turned toward Asuka and quickly said, "Asuka, it looks like our cover is blown. Here's what I want you to do. When I distract them, run for the driver side of the tractor, and drive off as fast as you can. I'll hop onto the house on wheels when I have a chance,"  
Asuka was extremely nervous, "And how the hell do you suppose we do that? We've got guns aimed at us!"  
Ranma said slowly raised his hands so he wouldn't spook anyone and make them fire early. "Remember my vacuum slash?"  
Asuka's eyes widened.  
All of a sudden, Ranma swung his entire arm in a wide arc, grabbing Asuka and pushing her toward one side. A split second later, a massive amount of snow rose up into the air, everyone's vision blurred as this smoke screen made of snow was generated.  
"Go!" Ranma told Asuka. "I'll catch up!"  
He pushed Asuka in the direction of the tractor.  
"Where the hell are they?" Asuka heard on of the three people say as she raced right past them.  
Unable to see very far in front of him, Ranma ran forward and grabbed Katsuragi-san, "Sorry man, nothing personal." And then shoved him away violently, the man flying through the air about twenty feet before hitting and ground and sliding to a halt ten feet later.  
As the snow started to settle, Ranma turned toward the three remaining people, his arm coming out in a wide arc, the snow rising into the air again, creating yet another snow smoke screen.  
He proceeded toward the three, grabbing one of them, the man opening fire at his unseen assailant, only to soon find himself sent flying bodily through the air and into his friend. Ranma swore to himself as he realized the gunshots would make everyone emerge from their trucks to inspect the commotion, thus, more trouble.  
He quickly ran to the tractor where saw Asuka.  
"What's taking you so long? We're gonna have company in a second or so," he said.  
Asuka was trying to open the massive door. "The damn door's locked,"  
Ranma punched right through the window and opened the door from the inside. He shoved Asuka into the tractor and jumped into the driver side seat and then soon realized something, "Oh shit. Where the hell are the keys? Think about it...the door is locked and no idiot would lock the keys in,"  
"You better do something now!" Asuka screamed, pointing out the front window "Cause here they all come,"  
Ranma check the vanity mirror compartment. No keys.  
"Yeah, right, that only works in the movies," he muttered. Knowing that he had nothing else to do, he broke the steering column with an open palm strike, "What the hell am I doing? I don't know how to hotwire!"  
He hopped out of the tractor to face the oncoming people. He let loose his vacuum slash several times, surrounding the area with disturbed snow. Knowing that he can't use a ki-blast or he would risk killing someone, Ranma ran up to the nearest man and dove at him, just as the snow settled and he opened fire.  
Ranma shoulder rammed the poor man, knocking the wind out of him. He then knelt down and grabbed one of the man's feet, and swung him right into two incoming opponents. As soon as he release his hold of the man, he let loose another vacuum slash, once again disturbing the snow.  
Unfortunately, the effectiveness was quickly wearing off as several people refused to rush toward Ranma, preferring to stay a safe distance away and take aim.  
Ranma, knowing there was nothing much he could do unless dodge or get shot, jumped into the air, and shot a ki-blast down right into the ground, causing a massive explosion. Everyone dove for cover just as Ranma landed safely in the middle of the crater that had just been formed. He quickly seized the advantage and ran up to one of them, picking them up and swinging him around and throwing him into several people getting back up.  
"Several down, dozens to go," Ranma muttered. He was definitely out gunned. Because he did not want to kill, and would never kill another human being, he was at a serious disadvantage.  
After a short moment, Ranma realized the only way to get rid of everyone was to either kill them with a massive ki-blast, or make them run for their lives. Choosing the latter in an instant, Ranma allowed his aura to flare intensely.  
He needed to do something flashy to scare everyone off.  
"Hiryu Shoten Ha!" Ranma shouted as he release his hurricane blast, sending a column of wind spiraling up into the sky. He then executed his vacuum slash, causing the snow to get sucked up with the man-made hurricane, creating this massive looking tornado.  
"Bakusai Tenketsu!" he shouted as he stabbed his finger down into the ground. Although Ryoga was the one how had mastered this move, and could use it much more effectively, Ranma could also do it. The ground Ranma was standing on exploded, sending chunks of ice flying up in the while spiraling tornado.  
From within the blast, he aimed a hand on one of the shocked people that was standing outside the white spiraling column, "Mouko Takabisha!"  
A massive ki-blast erupted from his fingertips and narrowly missed the hapless people. He shot another ki-blast at the other oncoming group, missing them, too, by mere inches. The blasts exploded several yards away, creating a mushroom like eruption.  
As the people watched that man turn into a hurricane and start shooting spheres of energy at them, it took several moments before the people to realize they were dealing with some kind of devil incarnated. When they did, they all ran away.  
Ranma was sitting in the driver seat as he drove the tractor, Asuka sitting in the passenger side. He had found the keys on one of the hapless people he had knocked out. Of course, it had taken close to a half an hour before he found the right one. Ranma had been driving for around two hours. It had taken him close to ten minutes before he understood exactly how to drive this thing. He had never really driven before, afterall.  
"How far are we away from where Adam arrives?" Ranma asked.  
"Well, the equipment in that unit behind us says its about a hundred and fifty miles straight a head of us," she said. "And since the fastest this damn tractor moves is at ten miles an hour, we've been moving for around two hours, we're around a hundred and thirty miles away. At this rate, we'll make it there in no time,"  
Ranma looked at the clock on the dashboard, "You know what's funny? The fact that we are moving at an obscenely slow speed and that the expedition team could catch up to us in no time flat, yet no one has."  
Asuka smiled wryly, "I dunno, perhaps it's because you made a spectacle of yourself and probably scared ten years off everyone's life."  
Ranma shrugged his shoulders, "Hm, perhaps you're right. Well, anyway, is there anything to eat?"  
"The food is probably in the mobile unit," Asuka commented, "I mean, it's kinda like a house on wheels afterall, so there's bound to be some rations or such in there. We could stop."  
"I guess so," he agreed, "I'm gettin' hungry anyway. I haven't eaten yet,"  
He stopped the tractor, the mobile unit slamming into the back due to the sudden stop.  
"Oops, gotta learn to slow down to a stop," Ranma said with a weak smiled.  
"Baka," Asuka muttered.  
Ranma and Asuka both got out of the tractor and went into the mobile unit.  
"Oh shit," Ranma said.  
"What?" Asuka asked, "What's wrong?"  
"I just realized something," he said, looking around, ignoring the messed that had just been caused by the sudden mess, "I haven't seen Misato at all...how come I've got the funny feelin' that she's somewhere on this-"  
Ranma stopped Misato unconscious under a pile of boxes. It seems one of them had fallen on her.  
He quickly rushed to the little girl's side and threw the boxes off her. She had a bruise on her cheek from where the box had struck her. In her hand was the CB receiver, the wire now snapped.  
"Looks like she had been trying to call for help when the boxes fell on her," Ranma commented, slowly picking the child up. He proceeded toward the back of the unit and placed her on the first bed he came to. "She looks almost the same as her older self," Asuka commented, eyeing the child cautiously. She couldn't believe Misato here was the same age as her.  
Ranma held a hand over her and allowed for it to glow red for a short moment. "She's just a bit shaken. I guess it was the stress for this unexpected turn of events. I mean, we did steal this thing with her in it, afterall,"  
Misato opened her eyes. She looked up at Ranma and Asuka curiously.  
Ranma smiled, showing no signs of hostility. It was a very friendly smile as he said, "Hello, Misato. How're you doing?"  
She sat upright. She didn't recognize these two people. "Who are you? Are you here to rescue me?"  
Ranma chuckled, "In a way, yes. But then again, we're, I guess, the bad guys,"  
She gasped. Asuka almost laughed.  
"I'm Ranma. This is Asuka," he said in a warm voice.  
"Um, hello," Misato said meekly, still eyeing Ranma cautiously. "Even though we are consider the `bad guys' in this situation, we're actually good friends," he said. "You're probably not gonna believe us, but we're here to stop something really bad from happening. But before we explain more, can you do me a favor and tell me where the food is?" he asked politely. He had no intention of scaring Misato. "I'm absolutely starving."  
Misato regarded Ranma for a short moment before she spoke, "There's a food storage area in back."  
"All right, let's eat,"  
Misato was getting a headache.  
"This is all so confusing." she commented.  
"It's not too hard to understand," Asuka said, a bit exasperated. She could understand this, yet couldn't understand why Misato couldn't. They were the same age. "All right. Once again." Ranma said patiently, "Asuka and I are here to stop something bad from happening. Basically, a being will appear in a very short while, and we're here to stop it. If we don't billions of people will die."  
"Yeah, but I don't understand why you had to steal this unit to do it,"  
"Um, I need to find out the location this incident will take place," he half lied. He wanted to keep Misato from getting worried or scared. "This thing is just the thing we need to find it. Now that we know the exact location of where the incident will take place, we'll simply return it. That's all. I mean, even though this thing belongs to your father, it was nothing personal."

Ranma stopped the tractor just outside the outpost.  
"Don't worry, Misato, your father will be by to pick you up," he said in a reassuring tone. "You know how it goes. Because your dad wants to get this truck back, he's going to be coming after us. That's why we told them that they have to stay several miles away from here. That way, when we tell them that we dropped you off, we'll have time to escape. You know how it goes,"  
Misato nodded.  
"So, what's going to happen?" she asked, stepping out of the tractor.  
"Well, this is where we say goodbye," he said, "And in case you're wondering, we'll never see each other again. Anyway, just make sure you remember to tell the entire world about what we have told you. That way, they'll be prepared. We can't stop the Angel from coming, it's your job and everyone else's to stop `em before they wipe out humanity,"  
Misato nodded.  
Ranma hugged Misato, "Oh yeah, in case we never meet again, you take care,"  
"All right, Ranma. You too, Asuka,"  
Ranma smiled once more before he boarded the tractor and took off for their destination.  
After about ten minutes, Ranma said, "Do you think she'll tell the whole world what we told her? I mean, all that stuff we told her is pretty unbelievable,"  
Asuka thought about it for a moment before she responded, "Yeah, she has to. We can't stop the Angels from coming afterall. All we're trying to do is stop the Third Impact. We're just trying to stop the entire continent from melting. That's all."  
"Hey, Asuka, do me a favor and drive for a moment," he said, handing Asuka the wheel. When she took it and was about to ask what he was up to, Ranma continued, "I'm gonna make it so no one can get hurt. I don't want anyone followin' us so I'm gonna block of their path. That's all,"  
He opened the driver side door and climbed up onto the roof. From there, he hopped onto the roof of the mobile unit and ran toward the back. He looked down toward the vast stretch of white that is void of anything but the track marks the tractor and unit had created.  
Ranma glowed blue for a short moment and then shot an extremely powerful seppukku blast horizontal from where he stood. By the time gravity took over and pulled the sphere of energy toward the ground, the blast would take place far enough from the vehicle that they wouldn't get hurt. He did this several times, making sure that he created a big enough hole in the expedition's path that it would take a very long time for them to drive around it.  
Once satisfied with his work, Ranma ran back to the front where he hopped into the passenger side seat.  
"What, you want me to drive?" Asuka asked.  
Ranma nodded, breathing a bit heavy. "Yeah, please. I'm dead tired,"  
"What did you do back there?" she asked.  
Ranma laid down on the said, his head resting by the little arm piece that separated the passenger side from the driver's side. "I used a whole lotta my ki to prevent the expedition from following us. And right now, I am dead tired. I'm gonna need to get some sleep,"  
"And what about me?" she asked.  
"Just drive straight for an hour or so," Ranma said wearily, "I need some rest." He closed his eyes and went to sleep, even against Asuka's protests that he stay awake and drive.  
Ranma awoke a few hours later. Asuka was still driving. She was freezing from the window that Ranma had broken earlier to open the door. Her teeth were chattering.  
"It's about time you wake up," Asuka muttered. Her fingers felt numb and so did her feet "You've been asleep for three hours already,"  
"Well, I needed it," he answered her. He lifted the arm rest and grabbed Asuka's waist, lifting her up in his arms.  
"W-what are you doing?" she asked in a shocked voice, heat flooding to her cheeks.  
As he held Asuka, he slid over into the driver's side, placing Asuka down on the passenger side. "I'll drive from here on. I betcha this broken window's got you frozen,"  
Asuka said nothing. Ranma reached a hand toward her, "Take my hand,"  
"Why?"  
Ranma sighed, "Why do ya always question my intentions? Jeez, I'm just offering to warm you up," He reached out and grabbed Asuka's hand.  
Asuka gasped for a moment as she felt Ranma's warm hand enclose over her own. There were electrical sensations that surged through her as she felt his hand brushing against hers. As he held her hand, a wave of warmth flooded through her, the same sensation that she had felt when she and Ranma first arrived on the continent and Ranma noticed her feet were numb.  
"There, you feel better?" he asked, pulling his hand away.  
Asuka was about to reach her hand out and take his hand again before she realized what she had almost done. She quickly pulled her hand back and held it close to her chest, staring down at the cold metallic dashboard.  
"I would have done that earlier," Ranma said, looking straight ahead, "But I was totally drained. I needed to get some rest so some of my ki would come back. Anyway, thanks for driving while I rested."  
"Um, not a problem," she said.  
Ranma continued to look ahead, "So, what do you propose we do now? I mean, we have quite a time to pass before we make it there. We still have a long way to go,"  
"I guess we're stuck talking," Asuka commented, "But then again, that's what we've been pretty much doing all the time,"  
"And arguing'" Ranma added with a smirk, turning to face her. His warm smile seemed to make this cold tractor feel like it was the middle summer.  
There was a short moment of silence as both wondered who should start the conversation.  
"All right, I'll start off," Ranma finally said, "Do you like living in MegaTokyo or did you prefer living in Tokyo 3?"  
Eventually, the conversation moved onto many other subjects as Ranma and Asuka continued to chat. There were even times when Asuka found herself almost laughing until her sides hurt as Ranma made conversation about this little pervert named Happousei and his exploits.  
Time flew by as they continued to chat. It was well coming quite close to midnight before Asuka started to tire. It was just that the atmosphere seemed to get much cozier and comfortable as time passed. Unfortunately, at some point it seemed to get too comfortable.  
"You know what, Misato was right," Asuka commented. She was starting to get a bit tired and was staring at the dashboard as she rested her head on the arm rest.  
"Oh? About what?"  
"Although you're an asshole, I have to admit that you are a good looking one," she said before dozing off.  
Ranma chuckled, "And you, Asuka, seem to be the only person who can actually insult and compliment someone at the same time,"  
He placed a hand on Asuka's head.  
"G'night, Asuka,"  
Asuka was woken up when Ranma gave her a gentle nudge.  
"W-what? What is it?"  
"Check it out," came Ranma's rather calm voice. He was staring straight ahead. The stretch of land before his was nothing but pitch black now that Ranma had turned off the headlights. When Asuka got up and looked out the windshield, her eyes widened. In the far off distance she could see a faint blue speck of light in an otherwise black horizon.  
"You think that's him?" he asked.  
Asuka felt a massive surge of adrenaline flow through her. It was extremely unnerving to see a site like this. The darkness made it seem like she was on a different world. The person sitting right next to her seem to assure her that this was not a dream.  
Ranma placed a hand on Asuka's shoulder, startling her. She turned toward him.  
"Asuka, that's him." He said softly. Although there was very little lighting in the tractor, the light provided by the dashboard equipment allowed him to see this fear that was in Asuka's eyes. "There's no need to be afraid, we're at least a mile away from him,"  
"What are we going to do?"  
Ranma looked ahead, "What else, we get over there and stop him. Judging by the time, we have about two hours to stop him before the Second Impact takes place,"  
Asuka stared at Ranma. "Two hours? How could that be? I thought we would have made it here in plenty of time!"  
"We would have but one of the wheels on the unit blew out. I had to change it. You slept through the entire thing," he respond. "But don't worry, I'm all rested. All I need is one or two good shots in and it'll kill him. Afterall, if he's the first Angel, and every Angel after that is strong, and since I had little or no problem harming those later ones, I should be able to stop him in no time,"  
"How are you going to stop him?" Asuka asked.  
"C'mon out. Follow me,"  
Asuka looked at Ranma for a short moment. She didn't really want to go out into the cold. When Ranma popped his head back in and asked what was taking her so long, she sighed and stepped outside. To her surprise, it wasn't all that cold nor windy out.  
Ranma walked over to Asuka and placed a hand around her waist.  
Just as Asuka was about to say something, Ranma jumped up to the top of the tractor along with Asuka. From there, they got a clear view of the blue spec of light and the vast stretch of darkness and sky before them.  
"I'm gonna pick him off from here," Ranma said with a smile, "One or two seppukku blasts oughta do it,"  
"You think you can hit him from this distance?" Asuka asked with a wry grin.  
"Yep," Ranma replied. "A seppukku is pretty much like a grenade. All ya hafta do is get it close to the target."  
"How close?"  
"Within a mile should be good enough," Ranma smirked.  
He brought his hands in front of him, holding his palms together as if he was cupping a tennis ball. Asuka watched in fascination as Ranma soon started to glow, lighting up their surrounding area in a faint blue light, as he brought his cupped hands down toward one of his hip.  
Deep in concentration, knowing that he had to make this one count, Ranma sent virtually all his ki surging through his body and into his fingers where a ball of pure energy slowly started to form. He continued to do this for several moments.  
Asuka continued to watch, feeling this intense energy radiating from Ranma's body. She could feel energy from all around her slowly being sucked away as Ranma absorbed it from nature.  
All of a sudden, her eyes widened as she caught sight of something spherical and very large rocketing straight toward the tractor.  
"R-Ranma!" she shouted, pointing.  
Ranma opened his eyes, just in time to see the incoming blast. He quickly reached his hand out and grabbed Asuka, leaping away from the tractor, twisting in midair, allowing his back to take the brunt of the shrapnel that was sent flying everywhere when the tractor exploded in a massive ball of flame.  
The impact erupted on his back, propelling him and Asuka backwards through the air. He and Asuka went tumbling in the snow, coming to a stop several meters from the now destroyed tractor.  
Landing on the snow, Ranma released Asuka and fell onto his hands and knees, a small quantity of blood falling from his lips and onto the snow.  
Asuka sat upright and gasped as she saw Ranma's back. It was badly cut and there were several massive lacerations running down the length of it. The jacket he was badly melted from having been so close the extreme heat of that explosion.  
"Ranma, are you okay?"  
Ranma got to his feet, wiping the trickle of blood falling from his mouth. He got up just in time to see yet another projectile rocketing toward them. Knowing that he didn't have enough time to grab Asuka into his arm and jump out of the way, Ranma shoved Asuka hard out of the way, just as the projectile hit him.  
"R-Ranma!" Asuka shouted as she saw Ranma enveloped in the blast. When the blast subsided, Ranma was holding both hands crossed in front of him, as if he had just blocked that blast with nothing but his forearms. He just stood there, very still. After a short while, Ranma brought his hands down and dared to look.  
"Now it's my turn!" he sneered.  
Asuka's eyes widened as she saw Ranma's aura flare as he held his hands in front of him and released his most powerful blast.  
"Seppukku Mouko Takabisha!"  
In a flash of light, Ranma and Asuka reappeared somewhere over MegaTokyo. Fortunately, they reappeared with their feet firmly on the ground instead of being several hundred feet over the city. And above that, they reappeared just across the street from a hospital.  
"C'mon, Ranma, just hang in there," Asuka said. Ranma looked at her weakly and managed a smile. He was leaning heavily against Asuka, his arm thrown over her shoulders. Asuka had to use most of her strength to keep Ranma afoot. Although he seemed light on his feet, he wasn't at all when it came to dragging him.  
He smirked weakly as he said, "W-well, it looks like we succeeded, ne? I guess it was a job well done,"  
Asuka smiled a bit but quickly said, "Quiet. Don't talk, Ranma. Save your strength,"  
Even in his extremely weakened state, he managed to still joke around, "I-I'm touched by your concern for me,"  
"Goddamnit, Ranma. Just be quiet. You're hurt," Asuka said in exasperation. Ranma did as he was told. He never said a word. Even though she said nothing about it, her eyes showed a great concern for him. He couldn't help but smile slightly at realizing that after spending so much time with her, Asuka was finally coming around.  
"C'mon, let's get those wounds treated," Asuka said gently.  
Together, Asuka half carried Ranma across the street. A small trail of blood could be seen left behind as Ranma slowly made his way toward the hospital. Passing pedestrians stopped and watched, wondering what had just happened to that poor man.  
When they both entered the hospital, several nurses and a doctor almost immediately rushed to Ranma's side when they saw how hurt he was. He was put on a gurney and wheeled, but not before Asuka managed to say, "I'm coming with him. I don't care what you say,"  
The doctor looked at Asuka for a moment, and realizing that she definitely not going to be told otherwise, sighed and said, "All right."  
As Ranma stared up at the unfamiliar ceiling, he muttered weakly, "I-  
I'll be f-fine, Asuka. Go home. Tell everyone w-we're back," He smirked a bit, "I-I assume y-you won't get lost like that time shortly before we left," He tried to laugh but nearly cried out as pain shot through him.  
"Ranma, I told you not to talk," Asuka said sternly.  
Ranma continued to stare up at the ceiling. After a moment, he closed his eyes.  
"R-Ranma!"  
"Relax, I jus' close my eyes, Jeez!" Ranma said. He winced again but said, "R-remember w-what said...b-back on the boat after I-I was attacked? I'll heal,"  
Asuka found herself saying, "You make sure,"  
He closed his eyes and went to sleep.  
Ranma opened his eyes an hour later. It took him for only a moment for him to realize that he was lying in a hospital bed. He also noticed that a significant amount of his entire body was wrapped in bandages.  
Asuka was sitting right next to him. "A-Asuka," he said, looking right into her eyes. "A-are you all right?" she asked, her voice soft, almost a whisper. Ranma nodded, "Y-yeah, I'm fine. Bit of a headache, though," He tried to chuckle at his own joke but winced as pain shot through him.  
Asuka took hold of Ranma's hand, "R-Ranma, you have to rest. You're in no condition to still be talking,"  
"Huh? You're the one who asked me the question first," he said. Another pain shot through him, causing his to grit his teeth. After a moment, when the pain subsided, he said softly, "A-all right. I'll rest. I-It's about time I get some rest anyway,"  
"R-Ranma," Asuka managed to say.  
He looked at her, "Yes?"  
"Um, about what you did back there," she said, not particularly looking at him, "You know, saving me and all. Um, I just wanted to thank you,"  
Ranma smiled. "W-well, Asuka, as annoying a-as you are, I find it hard to dislike you."  
"Well, you're not so bad yourself. Look, enough talking, Ranma. You need your rest." Asuka said with a smirk.  
"Did you tell the others that we're back?"  
Asuka shook her head, "Not yet. I'll tell them tomorrow morning. I'm going to stay here overnight."  
"No. Go on back home and tell `em we're back," he said. "You' know where it is, right? You won't get lost like ya did last mouth, will you? Anyway, it's best that you let everyone know we're back."  
Asuka shook her head, "I could tell them tomorrow morning."  
"There's no need for you to stay," Ranma said, his voice still soft, "I'll be fine. Besides, they're all probably worried sick about us,"  
She looked at Ranma for a moment. "You know what? Now I'm starting to understand why everyone seems to like being around you. You're really a great guy," She said this in German. She didn't want Ranma to hear that she had actually developed some sort of feelings toward him.  
"What does that mean?" he asked curiously.  
Asuka smiled, "Don't worry, I'll tell you some other day,"  
"Well, anyway, go on home," he said, "Tell `em we're back."  
"But-"  
Ranma persisted, "Go on. I'll be fine,"  
Asuka stood there for a moment. "All right. I'll go." She gazed intently at Ranma for a moment, smiled warmly, and then turned around and left. Just as Ranma was about to close his eyes and let sleep bestow him, the door opened and Asuka's head peeked in.  
"I'll be by first thing tomorrow morning,"  
"I look forward to your visit. And the other's too," he said warmly.  
"Well, g'night, Ranma," she said. "I'm glad you're all right. You make sure you get better,"  
Ranma smiled, "I will, Asuka. I will. Well, g'night."  
"G'night, Ranma," she said before silently closing the door behind her.  
"She's such a nice girl," he commented to himself.  
He sighed and then closed his eyes.  
That night, Ranma died.

The End 


End file.
